Christopher Barnes - Liberty Atoms

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Liberty Atoms 1
Sun defaults at climb.
Winged viper hulks
In nipping twitchgrass
To Maisie’s prompt.
Her teardrops firm up no lifeline.
Stencilled on boiled egg:
“One night – this time –
You do understand”.

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Liberty Atoms 2
Pea-pods in Belleek ware –
Only tide-sniffed coal.
Maisie’s fingertips bled.
Our kitchen tightened as she wittered
A jinxed dirge.
On a bus ticket:
“I would like to see you
To talk about my brother’s death”.

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Liberty Atoms 3
Emery-rough towel…strewn
Maisie gnashes carbolic
Howl-storying into evaporation.
This instant’s quarrel peeps
Through the ghosts’ no-matter wishes.
Copied onto a synthetic eyelash:
“He’s just an external impulse,
A sort of jolt, a solid entity”.

***
Liberty Atoms 4
Damask chiffon scarf
Muzzled the handset obstinately.
Our toadlet flopped
Into peeling door.
Maisie imagined numbers,
Glaring at fallow A4.
Zeros bevelled.
On neat velvet
Confidence-trick diamonds pushed into:
“Edward has been disappointed
And a little hurt”.

***
Liberty Atoms 5
Boulder-snaplink choker
Would not be donned.
Gala day scrapped.
Amelia whomped Maisie,
Floundering oysters.
Cloud ruptured –
In glazed shoreline:
“Do you imagine that you can save the world
Simply by proving that it is possible?”