I notice.Everything. How the inkon my paperhas more thanone color of blackand feels delicate as silk. The hard plastic wheels of a stroller scraping the gravel. Like crackling embers,the stillness of a solitary pineneedle sighing in the breeze.An eternal thing, like bloodflowing for its own sake. That spring taskof bringing life again. Or the neighbor’s Calico […]
nature
The Call
comes when you are waitingfor the shower and disinfection,and when you reach the bottom of the sinkwithout clothes, shoes, or even hair. The call comes when you are baptized with a number. The numbers told everything.For they told the world, in particular, how yourefused to let yourself live without its sorrow.A blessing that comes when you refuse […]
Blue Mountain II
Anointed by the elementsyou are my blueeyed mountain jewel, my empty breeze returning togreet the lipsof a valley asleepin the sky 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, essays and letters have […]
We Need the Soil
because the roots are a gorgeouscatastrophe of gargling raindropsthose empty diamond shaped facescontaining the dreams of elderberriesbecause she fills earth’s basket with the black resinous warmth of grandmother’s handsbreaking the ruby white stalksof rhubarb and celery, reenactingeach contagious morningthe cherished dew of midnight’s tearsas the wild and mischievousrhythms of eternity nears 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 […]
Harvest Moon
laced with the benign clarity ofliquefying Moonlightmy Cherokee mother hung rattlesnake skins the same wayher grandmother leanedBull Nose peppers on long fat cedar beams letting go of the softflow of cares and allthat belongs to theCreator
Replaced
Most of my water escaped long ago too,and which one of us was reallydesigned to withstand the pressure? Slowly filtered through solid rock,the remains are all that remains: pyrite and calcite and Uranium.Armored fish patrolling the depths,consuming the soft, fleshy parts, anddisappearing into the crystal lattice. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. […]
Olympic
Chinook salmon chant on sandstoneintestine-intuition in an agebefore teachers they emanatefrom the roots of the Naupakalike sea spray 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, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall […]
Sunset Over Henderson Harbor
She handed me the egg sprayed in blooded paint between the bones, slowly and meticulously, even perilously and the egg, in her fingers (if one could call them that) reminded me of the sun accused and oozing below a fluorescent indigo horizon sandblasted, with chocolate shadows on the cheeks of homes congregated on the rocky […]
Caught Between the Hours
Have you looked upat the stars lately? Have you watched the Moon bowor gulp light from her holy grail? Have you howled at her?The sky mother. Oozing through the gate, a vaporous,sweet olive black nightin the distance, a coyote yelping
When Daybreak Knows
I am trying to honor her.Her terms. Her words.Her voice. Her mountains.Her wildflowers. Her falsehoods and her fiberglass pauses on the screen. I ama child with her, opening painted windows that werenever closed to begin with. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry […]