A Mouth For Picket Fences
Barry Napier
Published by Needfire Poetry
~An imprint of Belfire Press~
Box 295
Miami, MB
R0G 1H0
Copyright © 2010 Barry Napier
Edited by Rich Ristow
Cover & Interior Design by Jodi Lee
ISBN: 978-1-926912-07-3
Multi-Format Ebook/Digital Download
Smashwords Edition
A catalogue record for this title is available from the
National Library of Canada.
This collection of poetry are works of fiction. Any resemblance to place, person or event is strictly coincidental.
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Also by Barry Napier
Debris
(2009 - Library of Horror Press)
The Final Study of Cooper M. Reid
(2010 - Strange Publications)
The Bleeding Room
(2011 - Graveside Tales)
* * * *
Acknowledgements
“Lives Upon a Napkin” - first published at Everyday Poets
“The Person We All Become” - first published in Pedestal Magazine
“The Longitude of Buttons” - first published at Nefarious Ballerina
“Singing Hymns as the Grass Grew Over You” - first published at House of Horror
“Each Ghost Reads its End” - first published in Death in Common (Needfire Poetry)
“Cars Left Abandoned on Friday Nights” - first published at Everyday Poets
“Mute” - first published in Debris (Library of Horror Press)
“The Misogyny of Writing” - first published in Debris (Library of Horror Press)
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About the Poet
Barry Napier has had more than 30 short stories and poems published in print and online. He is the author of the short fiction collection Debris and the chapbook The Final Study of Cooper M. Reid.
His first novel, The Bleeding Room, will be published by Graveside Tales in 2011. He lives in Lynchburg, VA with his wife and two children.
* * * *
Dedication
For Emma, who resurrected the poet in me.
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1
Sentinel - Lives Upon a Napkin
Cardiac Views of the World - Your Failure to Croak and Wither
Neptune Yawning - The Person We All Become
Eggs - The Longitudes of Buttons
Loss in a Stellar Nursery - We Will All Be Voyeurs in Heaven
Writing the Shipwreck in Motion - Not Waking Up In Iceland
2
A Mouth for Picket Fences - Morning Choir Practice
We are Speaking Through the Conduit - It Was Us That Did the Haunting
Protection - What We Know of Blackbirds
Peeking Between Fingers - Spooning
Vacancy (A Dream of Locusts) - Costumes
Gun and Golem - Well Rested Towns
3
Girls are Owls - Singing Hymns as the Grass Grew Over You
Family Game Night - Each Ghost Reads Its End
Pet - Cars Left Abandoned on Friday Night
The Misogyny of Writing - Rituals of Farewell and Departure
1