I know the forests are burning
to the charnel ground, and probably,
there is little that can be done about it now
Yet sometimes the best medicine
is a mind of not knowing, all that has been written
on those silken scrolls, the inner alchemy of illicit love
Or why the Nasamonians required brides to have intercourse
with many men on their marriage night,
so scared of our own cosmic blood, we have become.
George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, The Angle at St. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South China Morning Post, The Buffalo News, and more.
See all his poems on Tea House here.
