Five Propaganda Poems

Photo: Becca Hall Mimic board tile, via Science Museum UK. CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.
PROPAGANDA 36 

Vroomed by - 
A half-turn.
Random shot to eminence.
Mugginess quickened, fervent.
Plane crashed into whitecaps.  

     *

Vroomed by
             turn
              shot
                                   fervent
                             whitecaps

     *

Kismet vroomed by -
Wrong-turn.
Gamester shot - peevish. 
Dread unshifting, fervent.
Avoided low-ebbed whitecaps. 

***

PROPAGANDA 37

Self-possessed evening, diffused.
Muscatel gulped, we quit.
Loudspeakers roared.
Fume-thickening corroded nostrils.
Overshadows ignited red.

     *

                                        diffused
                                   quit
                        roared
Fume-thickening
                      Ignited red

     *

Precinct’s hubbub diffused,
swarms quit.
Their warplanes roared.
Fume-thickening blind eyed,
asphalt ignited red.

***

PROPAGANDA 38

Lips cricked with panic.
Tattery drift, rubble.
Searchlights hastened - 
Vicious unseemly glares.

     *

Lips
Tattery
                   hastened
                           glares

     *

Lips stiffen, soundless. 
Tattery clobbered paupers.
Rescuers hastened.
A bonesetter glares.

***

PROPAGANDA 39

Mortified spectators on iron bridge.
Flat rat-a-tats.
Lurid whistles hurtled.
Craters defeated paths.
Glass unhinged.

     *

              spectators
Flat
        whistles
                          paths
Glass

     *

Spectators intoxicated.
Flat ums and ahs.
Nightfall whistles, melodious.
Vanishing ragged paths.
Air-nips turned glass.

***

PROPAGANDA 40

Hollow in multiplex,
Thrown-about studwork.
Audience giggled.
Constables pointed freight
By dint of ruins.
  
     *

            in multiplex
                     studwork
              giggled
                               freight
     dint

     *

Real-hoot flick in multiplex,
B-list studwork.
Seam-bursting house giggled.
Alfresco freight tinkles,
Dint warps crossroad.

Categories Poetry

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.

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