A Child’s Guide 3
Artwork by Parker Wilson-01
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE FOOTHOLDS ON LUGGAGE Bustling check-in desk, suited men. Orderly queue – duty free sake. Vexed boy humpfed away. Eleventh hour tannoy inspirits discomfort. She lays Japanese Red Army’s blasting cap. Oyster-white peripheries shock to black. MR. POTATO HEAD BOASTS ONLY TWO EYES… …maximized as lookout. Agent Orange streamer’s biplane is groundworked with TNT by Earth Liberation Front. Nose-up discombobulates in vapour. Nimbostratus cambers to smile, harvests rustle breezily. FUNSHINE CARE BEAR STRENGHTHENS HONESTY Effecting nonchalance on park bench. Goslings nibble lawn, foxglove totters as seesaw groans. Military Quartet vacate. Pond wrinkles in anticipation. TV news producer is aimless, handgun scotch taped to paw, not. Communist Combatant Cell kick leaves. BILL & BEN NETTLED IN FLOWERPOTS Winds-of-change mill aligned to kibble. As Council Leader grasps twine, they relume six Molotov Cocktails, whining “This is for The Irish Republican Socialist Party.” Middling pylons, forenoon burns. MR. FROSTY’S INDEX CARD Dawn larks tip off. Unruffled curtains overshadow. Dahlia-print quilt gravitates to matting. Special Branch crack door jamb as he utilizes kitchen window. Booby-trap sizzles flesh. I.R.A. withhold rent.
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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 poems. Each year he read for Proudwords lesbian and gay writing festival and partook in workshops. 2005 saw the publication of his collection LOVEBITES published by Chanticleer Press, 6/1 Jamaica Mews, Edinburgh. On Saturday 16Th August 2003 he read at the Edinburgh Festival as a Per Verse. Christmas 2001 The Northern Cultural Skills Partnership sponsored him to be mentored by Andy Croft in conjunction with New Writing North. He made a radio programme for Web FM community radio about his writing group. October-November 2005, he entered a poem/visual image into the art exhibition The Art Cafe Project, his piece Post-Mark was shown in Betty's Newcastle. This event was sponsored by Pride On The Tyne. He made a digital film with artists Kate Sweeney and Julie Ballands at a film making workshop called Out Of The Picture which was shown at the festival party for Proudwords, it contains his poem The Old Heave-Ho. He worked on a collaborative art and literature project called How Gay Are Your Genes, facilitated by Lisa Mathews (poet) which exhibited at The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University, including a film piece by the artist Predrag Pajdic in which he read his poem On Brenkley St. The event was funded by The Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, Bio-science Centre at Newcastle's Centre for Life. He was involved in the Five Arts Cities poetry postcard event which exhibited at The Seven Stories children's literature building. In May he had 2006 a solo art/poetry exhibition at The People's Theatre.
