New Poetry by Stuart Barnes

Colour after the car crash

Colour is a basic human need …

like fire and water,
a raw material, indispensable to life

– Fernand Léger

Through Mosman’s veins they pestered them, orange freaks of Krishna,

silver weavings, citrus Fendi glasses,

blister pearls at clavicles, scarlet Prada clutches,

funereal stiff jackets, ‘why the crutches?’

‘Strangely spotted fingers plucked Deliverance’s bluegrass!

We wanted them away from us, their ghastly hues like mirrors’ …’

- Stuart Barnes 2012

Stuart Barnes is arranging the manuscript for his first book of poetry, & writing his first novel. Poems are forthcoming in Southerly Journal, The Warwick Review, & The Weekend Australian Review; an essay – 'Robert Smith: More Than Meets The Lancôme Eye' – will appear in Issue 3 of VLAK: Contemporary Poetics & the Arts. He currently lives in Melbourne.