Looking Out From Stony Island

Carve out my tongue
I will taste your wind  

Slice off my ears
I will hear your waves 
   
Gouge out my eyes
I will see your red sun setting
   
Tear off my fingertips 
I will touch your stones 
 
For I do not need the presence of your solemn grandeur 
as it perishes along a silent lakeshore
    
In the ashes of our ancestors
inside two hallowed bodies 

my love for you 
is a senseless prayer

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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