Sestina After B Carlisle – by Stuart Barnes

WINNER OF THE GWEN HARWOOD POETRY PRIZE 2022


My dying friend maintains Heaven
hallows only one queen. ‘Hell is
just around the corner, like a
gaudy shopping centre, a place
of no rest day nor night. Hot on
my heels, the Devil’s moving earth

and heaven to drag me from Earth—
say yes to drag!—to his heaven,  
where KS-coloured light grows on
devilwood and angel dust is
pain’s composer. Can’t you feel Place
de la Concorde’s wings shudder? A    

            

Gabriel created it. A
wild Gabriel comes to me—Earth
doesn’t know where to turn; I place
bets on Red. Do you want Heaven
or Las Vegas?
he trumpets. Fizz
of feathers. Tell the tycoon on       

                                                                       

high, I wave, to leave a light on—
and that I never wanted a         
rich man
. The syndrome my soul is
bedevilled by was sent to Earth 
by the consuming fire of Heav’n. 
Syndrome, from Greek syndromos, place       

                                                                             

where several roads meet. God, my place   
concatenates multitudes. John            
Waters’ Divine endorsed Heaven,      
but my whitish tongue arrows a         
Fuck you very much! to God. Earth       
turns swords into ploughshares. Gee whiz,          

              

I’m not good to go—hold my vis-
à-vis with the Valet de Place—          
hold his runaway horses. Earth—
glorious! It’ll go-go on.
Have I ever told you I’m A
neg? God, blood enraptures Heaven.’


On Vespas my dying friend is
a daredevil, gold as Heaven
Scent’s placets, summer rain, shared earth.


---

Note: ‘no rest day nor night’ is from Rev. 14:11, ‘consuming fire’ is from Heb. 12:29, ‘from Greek syndromos, place where several roads meet’ is from etymonline.com, ‘Fuck you very much’ was Divine’s signature line

Image: Ludovica Dri


This poem appeared in Island 164 in 2022. Order a print issue here.

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Stuart Barnes

Stuart Barnes is the author of Like to the Lark (Upswell Publishing, 2023) and Glasshouses (UQP), won the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, was commended for the Anne Elder Award and shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Award.

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