"Henbane"

David Barrick

David Barrick is author of the poetry collection Nightlight (Palimpsest Press, 2022) as well as two chapbooks. His poems have been published in Grain, subTerrain, The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, EVENT, Prairie Fire, THIS Magazine, and other literary journals. He writes and teaches in London, Ontario, where he is also the managing director of Antler River Poetry.

“I like Garden Path with Chickens (1916) by Gustav Klimt because the lack of human subject gives the painting an uncanny emptiness. It feels to me as if viewers themselves are cautiously entering the gem-encrusted scene, anticipating some kind of trap or ambush. This was the starting point for my poem ‘Henbane.'”

Where are the rest of the chickens?
Where are all the hens? I only see
one, standing like a hatchet lodged
in our path; the other is a human being

hidden under feathers, stilt legs studded
with scales. What fowl would peck
draping jewels, sarcophagus scarabs?
At the path’s end the chairs promise rest

but we must be wary. See the secret
visages of cats and mongrels, puzzle cube
sentries? They spy from another planet
through this mosaic of eye-stamens, fruit

unscrewed from sockets. A coded threat:
don’t call late, don’t come after sunset.