Unfaithful is a [prose] poetry narrative of erotica, polaroids, and music. Told through a series of vignettes which form a soundtrack to a marital affair, this chapbook explores the journey of an illicit relationship.
This is a fearless piece of writing that luxuriates in sensory detail and reaches right to the core of the sexual body. Barnes takes apart the layers of what explicit means and creates a sequence of the flesh that thrums with curiosity about the realities of negotiating the taboo.
– Ruth Stacey, poet and lecturer
This book is nothing short of pure sexual adrenaline, a physically animalistic eroticism that page by page invites the reader into a world of pleasure, of risk taking. A beautifully executed exploration of (in)fidelity, these poems give power, allowing unabashed and uncompromising freedom of sexual expression. Look a little deeper, and you’ll feel the lingering, a mitosis maybe, long after these pages have been closed.
– Stuart McPherson, Obligate Carnivore
In Unfaithful, I’m transfixed by the settings of fictitious hotels and seduced by music, orgasm and airport destination [inserts fragrance of duty-free perfume]. I sweated through the heat of deceit and desire, felt the physical impact of heat / heat drip on dress. The poems in Unfaithful are accompanied by their own soundtrack which the narrator conducts, and we the reader have no control on the intensity, pace and speed, just like the vibrator in ‘Delete after viewing’. I love how the sex in this pamphlet is explicit in the most perfect way.
– Wendy Allen, poet and editor
26pp