after Sylvia Plath’s ‘Lesbos’
Friction
In that block
Of flats. From six
A.M. you’d modernise.
I’d hammer, call you Sookie, sook.
So scared to relish bareback.
Designer duds rook
Black.
O tiny, spineless cocklebur.
O Cancerman. O castrate.
Only with Dutch
Courage you confronted—only once.
O pearl, you always knew just who I hated.
I amputated you, O saboteur.
Stuart Barnes lives in Melbourne, where he edits PASH capsule, a Facebook journal of contemporary love poetry. He’s currently working on a manuscript, Blackouts and other poems, that’s dedicated to the memory of Gwen Harwood, who encouraged the eleven-year-old him to write poetry. Poems are forthcoming in Windmills, Southerly, Blasphemy, Mascara Literary Review, & Assaracus: A Journal of Gay Poetry (USA).