He ate plain oatmeal
every morning
in the same leather
chair that mom
got him for Father’s Day
in 88. One breakfast
after finishing an orange
grapefruit, I told him
that I loved him just loud
enough so he would not hear
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.