No one could breathe for him.Hauled onto the curb as if he were dead already. Heavy as a bag of sand at a construction site. Still human, sucking the steel-tipped teeth of men. Gathered around his neck.They say that you had enemies.Perhaps he was one of them.They say you had a background. Maybe that is why your mother’s blood […]
humanity
Genocide is at the top
The worst of the worst. Followed by murder and arson and lynching and rape and terrorism and vandalism and discrimination and scapegoating and name-calling and jokes and rumors and biases and insensitivity and a person hung with grief. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry […]
How to Treat Water
Store in a copper basin with tulips or rose petals, under a salt lamp. Pray over and be kind to it. Play Mozart andChopin for it.Let it know youas a friend, and always, alwayssay thank you. 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 […]
Chimps
Somedays I wake up and look into the mirror and ask myself if I am really human. I know that I speak. I know that I symbolize and wear the skin that has the blood of mammals pulsating through its veins. I know that I am not a fish or reptile. I do not have the stamina […]
Lovers of Truth
Love is the absolute The unsurpassable The final dissolution Without destination May I be the lover The honey in all your senses The softness of the goddess May your heart open broadly Without anything to hold back Just pure deliverance May we see our eyes mirroringPure songs humming And the fragrance of fire Burning Clouding the […]
What I Have Faith In
The bending of starlightand my next breath, givenunto me as the heart is givenunto the chest. Or the summer moon is given unto the Comanchewarrior. And I have faith in you kissing me, under violets and lady’sslipper, in the wild gardens of Acadia, where dancing butterflies dare to land. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, […]
Like Raindrops
I am not a Buddhist (neither was he)I am a followerof the neonlight of liberation Free of being rightI strive to seehow my poetry can hold many truths, all of themsentenced todeath 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 […]
A Thought I Had While Swimming in Kimbe Bay
what use is the proper use of human beings to chase after each otherlike children after dragonflies to devote ourselves to each otherlike wooden idols on a totem pole to unlock each other’s mysterieslike keys forged in a closed foundry to be extreme with each otherlike we see on television to be tornadoes in each other’s waylike […]
Messiahs
Between colors and worlds,as old as fish dying on the hot sands,because the gods are jealous and concernedabout us, we are stuck to a diamond-shaped rockof slate, just like any savior who cameby ship and went. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat […]
Zen and the Art of Dying
I remember when the thought of dying became real to me. I was 24 years old, serving a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Marines. It was my squad’s turn to act as the quick reaction force (QRF) for our base. QRF is like the 911 of a forward-deployed unit. They’re on standby 24/7, […]