Young Turk, Furkan Dogan is pumped full of bullet holes, cut down by Israeli gunfire as he and his comrades try to break the Gaza blockade and draw attention to the Palestinian plight. He is only 19.
An ageing poet pumps himself full of holes with a syringe of insulin to stave off his own demise - the death that came to Furkan too soon.
The poet remembers not just Furkan's particular murder, but through it he laments the loss of his own beautiful youth. As he speaks to the dead boy through all time 'whenever that was', Barnett recalls his own passionate engagement with the world; his influences, political and cultural, and loves lost.
In this solemn act of remembering, the poet pulls onto his shoulders the terrible weight of 'this world gone wrong' and bears it for us all.
Continuing a tradition of Mayakovsky and Hikmet to read to people publicly 'to confront people more than to console them', this is a social poem to 'like' and 'share' mouth to ear.
In a culture that longs for closure, this will leave all your doors hanging open.
$17.95 – $29.95
Christopher Barnett began writing poetry aged 14. He participated deeply in the movement against the Vietnam war; that political commitment has remained. From the early seventies in Adelaide to France from 1990 to the present, he has conducted writing workshops and continues this work with communities in difficulty. His theatre work is performed in Europe, Australia and Latin America. He and his work have been the subject of French, Swedish and Australian film documentaries.