My Future Arrived

unannounced
and uninvited

empty-handed
drunk off Benedictine

cold, unwelcome
in my home

I demanded answers
yet it did not move

a muscle. Leaning
over the railing with 

a cigarette tumbling
out of its mouth

making the baby cry 
over obnoxious conversation

that just wouldn’t stop
or know where to begin.

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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