Heaven and Earth

I am left timeless. My skin is timeless. 
Like the rusty mercury gauge in an old Chevy. 

I am gazing upon Christ. I am aggressive.
My density is aggressive. I am an out of body 

experience. My blood pressure drops to zero. 
I am a cardiac arrest. The feeling of absolute resolution. 

I am the hangings, shootings, and burnings. I am a path
of radical poverty. United to each other as brother and sister. 

I am the problem of religious language. I am an impassioned heart.
Everything deserving of praise. The world whose beauty the sun and moon admire.

I am a deserted street corner in Brooklyn. I am Crazy Horse and Little Big Horn. 
I am the tail of the Great Bear-Ursa Major. 

I am a young prisoner. I am neither above nor below.
I pledge my allegiance to the rocks and plants. To the soil. 

To the oak trees and the woods. I am the holy body and blood. 
I am replete with goodness. One who loves. Those enemies I never met. 

I am what the poor know. What never ends up on a family tree.

George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat ReviewMoria Poetry JournalChronogram JournalAmpersand Literary ReviewThe Angle at St. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA TodayThe Wall Street JournalThe AtlanticHavana TimesSouth China Morning PostThe Buffalo News, and more. 

See all his poems on Tea House here.

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