In 1998 Christopher Barnes won a Northern Arts writers award. In July 2000 he read at Waterstones bookshop to promote the anthology 'Titles Are Bitches'. Christmas 2001 he debuted at Newcastle's famous Morden Tower doing a reading of my poems. Each year Christoper reads for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and he partakes in workshops. 2005 saw the publication of his collection LOVEBITES published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh.
the spittlesnot beagle’s
fingermastered against lab light
but this sizzletube’s
not the sting of the matter
He’s blended into the road and sky
Almost landscaped to death
Why should I be his mother?
He’s quite ignorable
Short people are.
Cold Ness in the dark loch
Is crying dry tears
We are all in need of mothers.
Yellow canary-seed trails
Don’t mean a person loves you
Merely that we all have our duties
Except mothers, of course
Pretending not to need dark glasses.
When I was in prison
My problem didn’t stay with me
It shivered outside.
I didn’t mean to hurt him
I was conscious…
I could see myself going off the rails
You can never get an ambulance
when you need one.
her face is every face
and each time she melts
she is a different woman
in contemplation of the air
she lounges
on polystyrene rocks
the Biba mannequin
sighs of boredom
and an empty heart
a thrill of froth
gathers at her feet
and the window becomes a canvas
with a flicked lizard tongue
she licks the latest tune
as it cascades moistening
laying in the crevices
she feels herself flatten
splintering into drizzle
she awakes a glistening minnow
dying on the shore
glinting an eye at the sun
©Christopher Barnes, England