Snow*Vigate
Issue 2 : Winter, 2007

Mothballed
(after Ezra Pound’s The Garden)

Christopher Barnes

Hollyhocks on her orlon midi blouse
gum up infectious railings.
A sundial fields this exquisite birdcage.
Blue-mould sky is analgesic
applying pressure on plumago, kingcup, buddleia.

Explosions have arisen, fixed:
coming out hop, a love-lyric from Mosley,
a hundredweight of turning traitors,
vehement months.
At 80 her keepsakes are cliff-edged.

Beige-cheeked sprogs
blah-blah through the side-path
to Comprehensive doors.
Swankpots, stiff-necked,
flagrantly dressed and feisty,
starkly alive.

On Christmas 2001, Christopher Barnes read his work at Newcastle's famous Morden Tower. He collaborated on an art and literature project called How Gay Are Your Genes, facilitated by poet Lisa Mathews, which exhibited at The Hatton Gallery of Newcastle University before touring the country. His collection LOVEBITES was published by Chanticleer Press in 2005.