I loved you, the way jewels are left unclaimed on the ocean floor. I loved you forevermore, and I knew all along that such a place does not exist.
I loved you, the way a pike devours a frog when it is not watching, you know how fast they can get out of the way.
I loved you night and day, I loved you in those solitude hours when the only noise is fear.
I loved you till I could no longer admit I didn’t.
And I loved you still, quiet like a rolling brook. Heavy like the dreams of children without children’s dreams.
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 Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South China Morning Post, The Buffalo News, and more.
See all his poems on Tea House here.
