Down where fingershold a windscourged turbulence,lurid and buriedin the fractures, your mountain graceblisters like iron smelted, and the mosaic of youreyes light all over.Wrapped in cold teardrops,below the grit of exiled scents, at your peak I feel astronomical, like Asimov’s balloons risingthrough a diaphanous fog. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in […]
buddhist poetry
Something Rather Than Nothing
Before slavery,oceans swept awayshadowsof sand pyramids. Before peace,there was just volcanicash on the seabeds- the color of Confederategray, like the eyes of a lost husky. Before the masters of war,there were border walls madeof barren clouds, ribbed and lifeless- above a million stillborn valleys. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work […]
After the Flowers
Into the hush a motherneeds when she strokesthe soft temples of her infantson, outside the dewdropsemerge once more. After theflowers are gone, on a blanketof peat moss, feeding the frogsand snakes, they emerge,hurtling toward the starvedemptiness of another daybreak. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, […]
Tea by the Batten Kill
Rinsing away theworld, from a widow’speak above the Batten Kill, with a cup of rose tips, everything burned leavesthe fragrance of her dried lips,like old questions interrupted. 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, […]
A Sound Reminding Me
Photograph by Jens Kolk When I was 9, I knewthat I was ugly. I did notknow how, but I knew. I looked at my reflectionlike a bonobo studies his teeth – both boorish and fervid. Today I know that I am beautiful.Falling asleep to a cold rising dew, I awake just to listen to the soundof […]
Weightless Noises
Wounded, we feel witnessedby time-by 200 years of war,a theater of bitter clouds and the breeze rippling the surface. When we glint at the sun, we sail through the carnage. That electrical charge. Thatslanderous appetite of a morning’suncertain future. When we glint, we are back in time.The sound of piercing skin, thunder and other weightless noises. George Cassidy […]
Last Virgin Pine
Solitary and heavyunder the unseated saddleof an infinite sky, Immortality is a ruthless harvester of data: an endless string of half breaths from the last remaining virgin pine. Covered in a bright burst of December snowfall, the sunstruck diamonds smile back. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as […]
Blue Mountain Jewel
Plunged intothe crevasses of alove untrammeled,you are my BlueMountain jewel,my wind-scourgedbase selected bythe elements. Burnished with slow infrared heat, youroriginal grace is liketiny iron grommetsholding my turbulence. 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, […]
Find Your Tree
By George Cassidy Payne Find your treeand everythingZen made of sky.For the worldhas gone wrong.The gamma raysare off. The heartis anachronisticand losing powereach day. Old andin the way, waitingfor the morning todeclare the peculiarcondition of a tree-that boundary intime and space, thatwave like disturbance. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]
Black Sun
Black sun of my core The agonies of ruined loves belong to you The loss of my only child Is the shadow that falls Since there is light I do not deny you For I know you are a deft master No one can avoid you Or hide from you You are the lord at […]