I’ve never been fond of horses. They’re beautiful animals, but riding on them is an uncomfortable experience. They can also be dangerous. My karate teacher was knocked unconscious when he was violently kicked by his horse. When he eventually regained consciousness, that experience led him to reflect on the precarious nature of life. It’s what […]
mortality
Nothing we see is color
Cezanne said that but no one believed himAll we really seeis light valiantly massacred the mineral-laden earth with its zillions of herbal veins and carnivorous flowers mere pinpoints of light reverberations of molecular light adorned with ornaments of human bones 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 […]
Catacombs of Domitilla
Bones as mere decor. Stored in metallic ink, eachmorning, waking without a comparison point, folded intoa cast-iron pot, fragrant withcumin, and ripe with profaneadverbs, in the unvaccinated catacombs of Domitilla. 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 […]
Butterflies and Other People
For two years, I lived on the edge of woods, on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee, between a sewage plant, an American Indian burial ground, and the state mental hospital. Outside my house I saw a butterfly, the most radiant being I had ever seen — blue and black and ivory, incandescent. A friend later […]
The Firebrands
What is the real reason Jupiterdid not let humans have fire? When the brutal winters camehe saw that they were unhappy. Was it to make them suffer, out of joyor boredom, in the rotting, barkless cold?Was it to merely expose their interiorsas hollow space for veiled, powdery, pinkish-salmon, gill-like phobias? Was it just a dark game between them – […]