The Devil of Omniscience

You always get what you want. Everythingcoming in must come out. Intimately. Moving together liketwo sides of the shark when it swims. Psychedelic inflation and the twosides of the universe moving together. Instead of. A mere assumption. Blownup. Holier than thou, Above human. Doing as you will. The whole systemfeeling lifted like a ground becoming light. Nothing making us do anything. The Dao doesn’t […]

Discovering the Pain of the World by Accident

Are we not a little like the horsesthat drove theRoman chariots? Strangling themselvesthe harder they pull. Or more like iron bladesgrinding the grain,discovering the pain ofthe world by accident. 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 […]

More Than an Enemy

More than an enemy, we are that as well.A netherworld of suffering. A hole through the chest,big enough to stick a fist through. We grew this way; we are this kindof species. Under construction. Disembodied. Rising. Like jumbled chunks of sea ice. Becalmed by the ocean.An oracle or ordinary friends, all leaving my world like perfect strangers. George Cassidy Payne is a […]

The Earth Which Preceded Us

From australianmuseum.net.au Insects are on your family tree. Ladybug ancestors and crustacean offspring.A family tree is years of hesitation. From microbes to plants. A chain ofinnumerable mutations. Flatworms andsponges following the design of turtle arms.  We are part of a family tree that is more thana metaphor. The birds feed off our limbs. The Cycads and Conifers spread in every direction.Damp, […]

When Everything First Began to Begin

The future is extinction, or has thatalready been said before? The drinking water is filtered with toxic rain and thetemples are draped in missed opportunities. There is a war in the future. There is a war over the future. A molten core bursting forth,it will not stop once you flip the channel. No, this illness called the future cannot remainhidden for […]