Three Lives, in New York. From Intelligencer
I need my used bookstore.
The sensuous aromas of
waxy skin jackets and
mahogany shelves, paper
skeletons in an excavated
ashram of introspection.
I need what it stashes away
behind a Tom Clancy novel
and an old National Geographic.
Eureka! That one book, at some
time misplaced in my mind,
appearing as a lost symbol of
wilderness, casting a garland-
clothed silhouette, as flannel-
shirted, torn-jeaned, leather-
sandalled regulars excuse
themselves for brushing my arm.
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 the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Havana Times, the South China Morning Post, the Buffalo News, and more.