Alison J Barton
dissonance
if a parasite crawls into my countenance from
your bearing to the fleshy interior of
my stomach I will live with it I want
to be of you
us of each other I want us to start
at your head and end at my
a continuous
being     line
your mouth ovals like a corpse
dissonance
the diamond between my
scapula scent your mode of inquiry
in the night
you move like cool fluid
I make my own lines
I distinguish between the chirp of afternoon sun bird
and police siren
we warm our skin on each other
as long as —
what language might be in your mind?
clean-linen-books-and-philosophy love
a formless mass
my hand authorising the pen
dashed eyes from the screen
royal blue dust
fingers curled towards the heart
(a protective gesture)
the upper back shoulders
rounded over the pulmonary the
gait of a woman unsolved
clothed in scraps
gape to bear
where is the place for human suffering
if not here
where should it be borne
in a soft ice cream mouth
brittle chocolate tongue
Budja Budja, Halls Gap
a mountain gully calling you like Alison Whittaker’s
white linen at Hanging Rock
calling you like you’re not supposed to be there
like you can’t see the blindness in your own eyes
you crawl through rock crevice without water
in the un-light of a stone cave
notions slip between gaps
history between people,
an un-mendable menace
an old whisper caught in the air
swallowed into the lungs
shadow footsteps just behind
you reach for rock edges with a hot dry arm
black eyes burn on white skin
tiny spirals coil from a dirt ground
the sun long on orange pebble stretches
the still quiet
waterfall on green
moss shallow windless
valley
you said you wouldn’t mind dying next to her but you’re not next to her
a baby rumbles in her belly
Alison J Barton is a Melbourne-based poet and book reviewer. Themes of feminism and psychoanalysis are central to her work. She is published in various journals and magazines (in Australia and internationally) and works as a Social Worker. She can be found on Instragam @alison_j_barton
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