Stuart Barnes
Prologue
text from The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Animalia
Endangered:
the Himalayan
Hispid hare
(stumpy ears,
a dull dark
coat, a massive skull
that cracks
when it tries to flee well-
meaning
captors; actually Caprolagus, a genus
of rabbit): grasslands
blackly scarred
by whites
deprive.
after the Graeme Base book of the same name
Stockholm Syndrome
they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh
—Matthew 2:11
I want to rape the man
that most recently
presented
‘I want to rape you’
as though it
was veins,
tears, or gums
I want to rape the man
that most recently cross-
examined with
‘why do they hurt,
they’re merely words’
I want to rape the man
that spiked
that pint
—the only drink
post-January ‘96
I had any human
touch—
with god knows what
(how fortunate
I guzzled
that fistful of meth
upon entering
The Peel!)
I want to rape the man
that keeled in our bed
that zeroed
in on me, a
                     Great
                     white
                     shark
that ever
so casually
rowed,
through seething
water,
‘you bloody liar’
as I keened
as I came clean
I want to drape the man
who altered me with garland,
tinsel and candy canes, and crown
him with a golden star,
then sing my hymn
of Bethlehem.
Stuart Barnes’ poetry is published in various online and print journals and newspapers incl. Qarrtsiluni, Mascara Literary Review, Overland, The Warwick Review and The Weekend Australian Review. An essay – ‘Robert Smith: More Than Meets The Lancôme Eye’ – appears in the current issue of VLAK: Contemporary Poetics & the Arts. His first accepted short story – ‘Mother and Son’, about his coming out – can be read at Verity La (http://verityla.com/mother-and-son-stuart-barnes/). He lives in Melbourne.
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Prologue
text from The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Animalia
Endangered:
the Himalayan
Hispid hare
(stumpy ears,
a dull dark
coat, a massive skull
that cracks
when it tries to flee well-
meaning
captors; actually Caprolagus, a genus
of rabbit): grasslands
blackly scarred
by whites
deprive.
after the Graeme Base book of the same name
they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh
—Matthew 2:11
I want to rape the man
that most recently
presented
‘I want to rape you’
as though it
was veins,
tears, or gums
I want to rape the man
that most recently cross-
examined with
‘why do they hurt,
they’re merely words’
I want to rape the man
that spiked
that pint
—the only drink
post-January ‘96
I had any human
touch—
with god knows what
(how fortunate
I guzzled
that fistful of meth
upon entering
The Peel!)
I want to rape the man
that keeled in our bed
that zeroed
in on me, a
                     Great
                     white
                     shark
that ever
so casually
rowed,
through seething
water,
‘you bloody liar’
as I keened
as I came clean
I want to drape the man
who altered me with garland,
tinsel and candy canes, and crown
him with a golden star,
then sing my hymn
of Bethlehem.
Stuart Barnes’ poetry is published in various online and print journals and newspapers incl. Qarrtsiluni, Mascara Literary Review, Overland, The Warwick Review and The Weekend Australian Review. An essay – ‘Robert Smith: More Than Meets The Lancôme Eye’ – appears in the current issue of VLAK: Contemporary Poetics & the Arts. His first accepted short story – ‘Mother and Son’, about his coming out – can be read at Verity La (http://verityla.com/mother-and-son-stuart-barnes/). He lives in Melbourne.
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