The hour I walked through your temple door,I came and knelt before your table. Thirsty and tired after a long journey,you asked me what I needed and poured water.I had no answer for your beauty. So I loved you without explanation. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included […]
A Midnight Oracle
Spread on the seagrass, curved as fishing knives, the cards of my past arrive unexpectedly, three swords piercing the heart, the only organ that won’t bleed to death, while the sleepy moon turns its encrusted eyes from molten tears falling on the gray, blushingcheeks of a corpse. I am no knight, but no one said I was. I am no devil either, although some declare […]
What You Cannot Help Naming
Hiking with children, in a nature park at noon, the world is sparkling and synth-laden. Without trying, the sacred ibis of thought is upon them, as their fingerprints singe burn marks of poetry in the bark of trees.To them, pine needles are hairbrushes for unicorns. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications […]
The Bobcat
Without pride, senses controlled,born or to be born, we met as hilarious strangers, each wanting something impossible.I wanted all beings like you to be happy. You wanted no being to deceive another. For a brief moment, we were sincere.Both of us, protected against the spirits of the dead,on a darkened street, on the outskirts of the city, waiting to cross over […]
A Definition of Bliss (for Joseph Campbell)
In this land of a quick and unexpected death, where the air is almost wet enough to drink,I am merely seeking an experience of being alive, my best and only religion,the music of tiny, bare footsteps splashing. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat […]
Service, to sip, Sunset Boulevard
I saw her again last night—the old raving woman with the girlish pigtails, trailing bin bags behind her that were visibly overflowing with knickknacks. This time, instead of yelling at me, she targeted my dog. “You evil man,” she told him, “I know what you did!” Her eyes didn’t leave him, even when he started […]
I Miss You
everywhere, in the hairs on my head and of my body. In my nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, stomach, bowels, mesentery, and excrement. I miss you. Your absence floats in my bile, my phlegm, my pus, blood, sweat, lymph, tears and saliva. I miss you. In the oil of my joints. […]
Virgin Birth
Impregnated by the stars,the womb flower invited you, swifter than lightningyou were invoked,refreshing the entire world,a cloud releasing its rain evenly for all 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, […]
The Birth of the Sacred Mirrors (for Alex Grey)
Birds settle on a tree for a while,and then go their separate ways again.There is no separate way apart from you.When I breathe, I can taste your breath,ablaze with an all consuming fire.When my heart aches,there is nothing you will not understand.Many have died in this house, but not you. Overtaken by this thing which men […]