I Searched Back

Becoming many-celled
from whitish to pale tan,

consuming the soft crystal
of my confiscated skin,
the alien searched me.

Like a probe sent into the outer
hemispheres of my consciousness.

I searched 
back.

I wondered into
its yucca-sized eyes,

and the room became calm, 
a cream-colored scent of smoke
rising as the holy spirit does for Baptists
on Sunday mornings when they really need it.

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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