Tag: turning 60

At night,
while we dream
I climb up and into
the flowering tree
to tuck in the fledglings
before they tumble,
sing soft lullabies
while the Mom sleeps,
caution them
stay east of the hedge
and if they must
fly high and up
no matter the bee-line
temptations,
watch the rain
and the wind
and the random cat
and I, my darlings,
will watch you
like a prayer.

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Photo by Matteo Badini. Poem ©2026 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you’ll love my book SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, on sale now at my Etsy Shop.

Someone’s pitched a tent
in the cemetery

a silent living,
I suppose,

except the train
that runs
the end points
of the line between

and silence
oh silence
is a 5-star amenity
in wicked days

when moss pillows
and rainwater cocktails
harken to simpler times

Indian-style on granite
housekeeping
under honeysuckle boughs

full of hope and envy
for a grown-up life
from which we’ll run,
someday

make camp with ghosts
who offer quiet comfort
and sometimes,
on special days,
flowers

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Photo by Matteo Badini. Poem ©2026 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you’ll love my book SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, on sale now at my Etsy Shop.

Tonight, by the quarter moon,
I will visit the Pemigewasset
lie down my tired bones
let notch waters churn
run the course of my body
pin me to the smooth roundness
upon which I rest
until neither of us notice
the stranger’s stillness
how all that seemed out of place
once was, once wanted
is no longer anything
but this river flowing.

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Poem & Photo ©2026 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you’ll love my book SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, on sale now at my Etsy Shop.

The hitchhiker
heading south on 3
towards Woodstock
represents, to my mind now,
a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure

If you decide to keep driving, turn to page six
If you decide to pick him up, turn to page nine

If you decide to keep driving…The End or maybe
If you decide to pick him up…The End

If you decide to throw caution to the wind, page nine
If you decide to roll the dice, let fate do the work, let freakin’ Jesus take the wheel

go to page nine

If you roll down the window
If you ask him: Where are you going?
If you let him in…

If he smiles angelically
If he pulls out a gun
If he asks where you’re going
                  Where the fuck are you going?

go to page nine

At least you get to see what comes next
you will know where you are going

page nine
                  or page six

Does it matter anymore?

If you keep driving
If you get in an accident
If you stop for lunch
If you pick him up

If it turns out he knew your high school boyfriend in a past life*
                  *true story

If you run over him
If you drive off a bridge
If you kill him
If he kills you
If you fall in love
If you write a poem…

If you decide to keep driving, turn to page six
If you decide to pick him up, turn to page nine

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Click here for more about the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Photo & Poem ©2026 Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you’ll love my book SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, on sale now at my Etsy Shop.

The moon said Get Up!
And while the cat
and cardinal
insisted I had some purpose
for the day,
I was not convinced.

I AM not convinced.

This slow and useless
plodding on floorboards
that hold now nearly
30 years of footsteps
seems circuitous.

I can, of course,
enumerate —
if you were to ask —
point out the notches
and plaques,
consider the possible
one heart, one life, one pain
but those are slow to come
at 4 when the soft known comfort
of sheets and dreams
seems the best I can hope for
these days, when even footsteps
have become formidable.

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Poem ©2026 Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you’ll love my book SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, on sale now at my Etsy Shop.