Two Poems

Stuart Barnes

Chocolate Cosmos vs. Antares   

The heart of the scorpion snickers at me. 

My petal-force skittles the Milky Way.

‘I’m brighter and redder than Mars.’ ‘I’m anti

the heart of the scorpion.’ Snickers, at me.  

I reset the six pins of the Galaxy,

eclipse with vanillin each starburst’s ray.

The heart of the scorpion snickers at me.

My petal-force skittles the Milky Way.  



Note: Chocolate Cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus) is a perennial plant from Mexico

Hemiplegic Migraine Aura

I conjure up zigzags and shadows and snow

in his body’s right side and vanish his name

and slow-juggle his world with a curl of the toe. 

I conjure up zigzags and shadows and snow

-ball———I flatten his drawl like a hat. Hey presto!

My wand? Just for show, but illusion’s no game———

I conjure up zigzags and shadows and snow

in his body’s right side and vanish his name. 

STUART BARNES is the author of Like to the Lark (Upswell Publishing), awarded the 2023 Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry, shortlisted for the 2024 ALS Gold Medal and highly commended in the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and of Glasshouses (UQP), awarded the 2015 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, commended in the 2016 Anne Elder Award and shortlisted for the 2017 Mary Gilmore Award. Stuart, Nigel Featherstone, Melinda Smith and CJ Bowerbird are Hell Herons, a spoken-word/music collective whose debut album, The Wreck Event, is out now through Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms. @stuartabarnes (X/Instagram) @hellherons (Instagram) www.stuartabarnes.com www.hellherons.com