The Experimental Selection - Michael Barfoot

8/11/2019 The Experimental Selection - Michael Barfoot

1/27

THE EXPERIMENTALSELECTION

A brief selection of poems

1stDraft

MICHAEL BARFOOT


2/27

1

Until Tomorrow Enola Dear

As children we sit bored in lessons

Where were taught to adopt professions

Society begs we hoard possessions

As this is a land where more is better

Where rich folk will applaud your effort

Where evil doesnt call attention

But one good deed done is for redemption

The only hope of reaching heaven

That lonely island floating by

Empty by standards they imply

Where the dead may never die

But if they know they will not reach

Then there chances surely decrease

So you rush your race just to be the first

Your ego grows till your bubble bursts

It overflows and you mumble words

Which soon evolves into one whole slur

That continues on and reoccurs

But those who end behind first place

Gave all they could to keep the chase

But in the end youll find no change

Your life will stick and be the same

And you shall die just as you came

Still the loser knows there is no success

Those worth more could stand the test

So soon hell find his brand is less

He has no reason to progress

He finds his peace within his death

Now those low down they must step up

To face a world about to erupt

Societies grin more than corrupt

To those who live their life half stuck

But they find a way to not give up

Unlike those who find their ground

They get their legs and settle down

To have kids who make them proud

And when they die adopt their house

But never leave to face the sound


3/27

2

That those below them have to fight

And struggle to grow to reach their height

Soon they slip but see the light

They thought they were happy all this time

But now theyre tricked to think theyre right

With money comes a lustful need

That opens up your heart to greed

To kill a man and watch him bleed

Just to see yourself succeed

But you cant stop you go on further

And invest to indirectly murder

Clicking people with your cursor

Upon a hill, a childlike person

You cant help your bad intentions

The world stole all your best inventions

Now theres nothing more than tension

To click a button and face the sentence.

This life of sins a life of scorn

Hanging from the devils horn

Blood drips from the crossbows thorn

Powerless when sirens warn

To protect all those who are not yet born

When every piece of fabrics torn

To the sound of trumpets predicting war

And soon to be what went before

And all I know is Im unsure

What on earth theres silence for

Year by year the weeks will pass

As sand covers up the long dead grass

A fly walks on an empty glass

Within a world without a heart

A vast expansive desert stretches

Across a wasteland sunk and restless

Where no weary traveler ventures

For they are not so young and reckless

As operatic words of violence fade

The lonely violin of night is played

The player pulls along his blade

Across the strings of the greatest stage


4/27

3

A Final Farewell to Peace

A gypsy queen puts out her cigarette on the no smoking sign

And her tarot cards tell me to steal everything that is mine.

I hate you, I will abandon all I love to see you die

I love you, I will adopt all I hate to see your smile.

God bless Jack the Ripper, he has killed all the murderers to prevent corruption

God bless David Koresh, he has burnt all the extremists to prevent corruption.

And the sign reads everything is free in small print to those who can afford it

And the lady with the lamp stands laughing in the leopard skin corset.

That doesnt stop Cleopatra opening all windows without removing her coat

Like the plutonian sailors who have seen neither shore nor boat.

Your beautiful trees, clouds, skies and buildings together without seam

They have slapped, scarred, scorched and singed until forced to scream.

If you go to war, you are dead.But if you dont and you try to live in peace, you are dead.


5/27

4

Where to Go?

When victors and victims invite with open arms

You up to their castles sill beaten by bombs

And when the rain and the wind blows up a new storm

Youll realize youre somewhere you dont belong.

The white queen dances naked and sings her small tune

The dead lovers still lining the floors of the courtroom

And the prison guard stands watch saying no man comes through

Because hes locked her away while he spends her fortune

The world stands on eyes that watch where you go

Asking question of life that theyll never know

And everyone is against you, you start to feel all alone

Then come spend a night with me while we build your new home


6/27

5

Ive Got Her Troubles With Me

For now I am lost, down in the deep

And the old mad machine has drifted to sleep

Carrying pain without any regret

Heading homeward back to the depths

The stones are standing and their shadows stretch

Death to the son who never forgets

Everyday its the same old game

Full of rage and full of pain

I can see the light of a life come shining

Dreams of a better world over that horizon

Without the ghouls whose long arms reach

And no terror from those who preach

Now the people go where they must confess

Of the sad eyed valleys restlessness

And the clouds by a wind theyre driven

Holding hope their souls are missing

With her lonely heart for a fortnight dead

And all ambition has escaped her head

The old twisting street that winds to the shore

Has left her poisoned down to her core

Theres no headstone placed and theres no one left

Who can even try to mourn her death

There is only him and his dust guitar

Who can keep alive these thoughts of her


7/27

6

Golden Child

Golden child

Who works for money

You lock inside a vault.

Your words they lie

With written chords

That contain no single fault.

And empty pockets

Once full of fear

Now stand strong and true.

But how can one

Whose innocence bleeds

Be found inside their room.

Broken bones

Lay on the floor

Where you used to sleep.

It hides the steps

That once were left

Where the night thief slowly creeps.


8/27

7

A Creature Such as Her

Youve had your last chanceLay down your sweet drum

The doom bells are ringing

Your time it has come

I watch from the ocean

Your waves swaying my boat

I watch the world open

And you fall down its throat

Always so pretty

Always so petty

I could have saved youIf only youd let me

With golden eyes of lace

Seeing nothing in fault

And speaking words without jealous trace

Youve fallen so far

A face so fair

And a voice so strong

Bow down to the victims

The prisoners youve strung

Now your strings wont dance anymoreThey cant even see Im standing here

Your beautiful smile

Made of a hollow dream

Who could ever Notice that seam

You walk the world of a queen

With nothing daring to step between

One small man who tried to intervene

Hes so gentle, hes so swift

With his morphine kiss

And his club like fistYour arms that hold

The world like a flame

Your legs that stand

On top of the shame

Life in the basement

With your barmaid schemes

Servant of the occasional themes

No man comes

And no girl sings

No child wantsTo hold your rings


9/27

8

People laugh, they cannot see

I truly would have left here with you

And many man has offered his hand

You take your gloves and bury them in sand

Oh, where is your girl with her fan

The day grows hot and the sun grows grand

Oh! Saint of the sky who polluted the sea

And records every photo like a memory

How could I ever pretend to be sorry?

The apple of the queens

And the pharaohs thorn

Kings cantescape

From the death they are sworn

And you pretend you dont know

But you just perform

Your act is nothing new

To those from the farm

My alarm it is singing

My bed it is cold

There is a place here empty

Where the sheets wont fold

The dogs are all dying

Someones poisoned the well

I have not drunken life from the land

Where everyone but the devil doth dwell

Speaking no words

And keeping no hope

I am a prisoner

You are the smoke

Watching my victims

I bully and beat

Your guiding hand

I could never mistreat

But now you have broken

And failed your part

I gave you the money

And you cut out your heart

Pages and pages

Burning for heat

The warmth is worth more

Than facing defeat

Your life it is fading

You live on the rocks

You gave me a key

You changed all your locks

Waiting in water


10/27

9

Ive waded before

I crossed many oceans

I founded this shore

You landed here hoping

I watched you sail in

I devised the whole scheme

I dont know where to begin

Now that your lips are deserted

And your teeth have hidden

Your remove your armor

And kill every horse youve ridden

Setting them free

From the agony

You kept them locked up

Under the velvet degree

The sailor who sailed from a far off land

Knows your lips so well, hes held on your hand

You healed his depression

I killed him with plans

Your eyes so wide

And your mind so thin

And your childlike nature

So impressed by sin

In my back pocket

Your hands they searched

Taking my last prophet

For better or worse

Some say its a fortune

Other a curse

How could anyone have devised

Such a creature as her.


11/27

10

Shades of Wool

Ive been watching that girl

She moves like fluid

My mind says no

But my heart says do it

Youve been living behind that curtain

With all your misery

I look out my window

Theres a new day dawning

I left the news on last nightAnd theres a hurricane warning

Theres dust on the coat

And the shades are a mystery

The devils on drugs

And he walks unto death

One hand on his gun

As he draws his last breath

Taking with him

Every last man he sees

His death is not silent

The memories remain

There the only thing that keeps him

From going insane

Watching all the people

Knowing he will never be free

Tensions are rising

And wars on its roundsTheyll die in the fields

Before they reach any town

All the guns are singing

For the blood of an English man

The peasants are asking

Just how much is too much

When no man is content

And theres never enough

Riots everywhereHave gotten a little out of hand


12/27

11

Theresa man in his ways

With nothing behind

For the future hes hopeful

For the present hes blind

There is no one in here living

The room was already dead

Theresa shine in your smile

But dark in your eyes

And nothing but emptiness

In the grey sheet sky

The dark red ocean

Has gone and drowned your bed

Ive been living two lives

With nothing between

I sleep through the day

And walk through my dreams

I dont even know which one

Feels more real to me

Soft hands of an angel

With a kiss like stone

If you dont like my loving

You can go make your own

The room it is quiet

But I can hear you breath

They satisfy his mind

Then thrown him in mud

They soak him with wine

Then feed him his blood

I cant even explain why

He keeps going back

A voice like death

And eyes like smoke

So lost in confusion

She mumbled every time she spoke

The wind has stopped

And the sky is getting black


13/27

12

To Be a Fool

Life is the cruelest fate

The most evil torture

Devised by no-one

By nothing except the eternal

An unconscious concept

We are all doomed to

That we all came from

Plants truly rule the living

Animals are not so lucky

Yet not so ill chanced

As the autonomous

We know our future

And our fate

An eternal state

Of infinite darkness

But not darkness

Much less indeed

And so we are punished

Those lucky enough to not exist

Never must fear not existing

But I, because I can think of fear

I have created death

Nothing does not exist, I created it

And I suffer for it.


14/27

13

Particularly Eden East (An Extract)

Eden can no longer exist.

Its birth has long since passed.

The breath of life once 1s and 0s

Has evolved into millions and more

Sections that stretch the entirety.

The land parted creating oceans

And rivers that seemed even more

Beautiful than it ever did before.

Then ownership and sticky labels claimedProducts of which no man should own.

Dividing into the north, west, south

And of most particular interest

It created that which is now

The forbidden Eden east. All

Societies became corrupt but none as much

In roses and silver a new queen

Born, to rule under advisors, herTrue reason for future declarations.

Eden was gone, like the season she

Believed it was due to return eventually.

So like cattle she gathered them, advisors and all

Into the square, archers on the

Walls and her new Aryan race of disciples

Standing behind her she said I have

Had enough and so you must all die

Arrows, like a school of fish swam

Following each other to the prey.

The people fell like the red rain

Under which the queen laughed so hard

Even Satan did not applaud.

Once the streets were lined with corpses

And everyone but the queen with

Her twelve disciples was now dead,

The archers then returned to theSquare, some laughing, others crying.


15/27

14

You are in Gods grace great servants

But only one of you can stay

I do not however show any

Favoritism, you decide.

The last man alive can join me.

The mindless slaves did not dare fight

Back, so they had to fight those which

They once called brother not long ago.

Sword rose up against sword, axes

Met flesh and heads met the red floor.

Iron boots stomping citizens

Below, as corpses turn to pulp.

She laughed as fifty became ten.

Ten became five and five became

Two, then as the last one died, one.


16/27

15

The March

Without reason for existence like the crying of a sparrow

Haunting lonely nights of memories that I travel

An eternity till dawn as anarchy unravels

To the sound of continuous marching

Twisted phantoms crawl from the shadows of the evening

While the lady on the rocks continues living without breathing

And the colossus with the sun has begun his journey leaving


Maybe its the absence of my reflection in the mirror

Or my harrowing hopeless hell that I know that no one fears

But I cant accept my life in the way that it appears



17/27

16

November 8thWoman

This feathered mist it holds me down

my feet can't touch the frozen groundI'm stuck here sleeping where I dream about

A lie that I cant live without

Wishful words run through my mind

I could speak if I was not blind

And the only courage I seem to find

Is held up in a social bind

Blackness parts the day begins

Marie's voice so light descendsTo say it all it all depends

But then I fall and it all ends

Wine flows like a song for you

I carefully pick every word I choose

But I can't win if we all lose

All except him and his mask alludes

Watered down and censored lines

From poets that possess the timeIgnorant to what they write

Laugh at me as my page ignites

The train it goes full steam ahead

Back in time or back to bed

Either way I must have fled

If It was not that Id woken dead

Lady Lucy loves my strings

The way each words warps and ringsI can't compare to the way she sings

A goddess for a diamond king

And she can't talk of things that change

She is content with what remains

Calls me out that I'm insane

If I don't love her with every vain

The path I walk is not well lit

Every step I stumble tripLightning cracks it's humble whip


18/27

17

The Sinking of my skyway ship

So it's Overboard that we all go

And fall to the rising earth below

Landing in the world on show

With no way to ever find a hope

And these ladies lock me in their rooms

Keep me high with their balloons

To let me hear my lonely tunes

Until I disperse into the fumes

Statues stand and scream of truth

You silence them and call them rude

But they ask your eyes what they would do

If they must watch a free world unmoved

As I return back to the world

You're no longer such a little girl

But a woman grown with golden curls

In control of life that I once held

I'm not the shadow of what I once was

I'm wandering silent without a cause

And all my words are truly lost

With however they seem to come across

You said that you were moving on

You had no idea where I had gone

Or even the town where I come from

Either way you can't go on

I suppose I'm going back again

It's time for me to make amends

They care for me and take me in

I tell them stories of where I went

And of you


19/27


20/27

19

With a silent nod

That you stand on ground

Which rich men trod

And the silent sound

Which seems so odd

When your gods they die

And the night grows cold

And the ancient lies

At last grow old

But you still cantquit

And you still cant fold

When a house is lit

But you walk the road

Your girl shes flown

Your guitar is pawned

And messages home

Go on ignored

And the magician parades

His magic sword

Then he flies off stage

With eyes sight chords

If the night is long

And the moon is bright

And everythingswrong

And you shield your sight

You hope and wish

Youvefind the light

For an angels kiss

Or a devils fight

And workers sit

So bored of work

A nervous twitch

That borders curse

The dying man

Calls for the nurse

Hes left to stand

In the rain and dirt

When the ancient clocks


21/27

20

Ticks out your time

And your greatest stocks

Are left behind

When you search for truth

You cannot find

And the days treat you

So very unkind

You can find me in your tomb

With my broken back bent

And sacred heirlooms

All sold for rent

Ive managed to replace them

With the love I lent

But what goods a replacement

When the nightswell spent


22/27

21

As I Am

As I am

Shaded by trees from the hot sunI could never imagine a greater existence.

Even the relatively poor can take a glass

Fill it with ice and water then sit outside

And drink the refreshing drink.

The most valuable substance in the universe

The sun, the sea and the land.

Here

With purple flowers of a speciesWhose name I never learnt sitting across from me.

The butterflies and blue tits in the trees above me.

And a clear sky everywhere

I am content at least for a little while

I could never spend too long considering

The beauty of nature before being overwhelmed

By the physics and math everywhere.

I am not a physicist or mathematician but these are

The most important parts of being a part of eitherThat is with any real success.

One thing I have learnt is everything is complete.

Explained. That is why they exist.

Yet everything is also wrong.

The greatest scientist isnt he who has learnt everything.

He is merely the greatest teacher. It is difficult for one

To unlearn something.

So only those who never know can innovate.

So, my amateur mind is considering.And I do so with great uncertainty of everything.

Nevertheless, I am curious.

So I begin.


23/27

22

Thicker Than Water

They tell me I need you

But who wouldntYour iridescent words

Speak of violence or fear

In the palm of my hand

You multiply and cover me

My head, a balloon in a vice

Any moment now, I presume

Come and take me, I see your light

I was once lighter, now

I am lead in a dark room

Your beauty has congealedA word I cannot spell yet

There is no me without colossus

There is no thought without me

Who says a man of god must feel love

I do not love god

At least not any god youve met

Theyre always so arrogant and vain

Mine is humble and righteous

I am lost, so soon a serious illnessOf illiterate creation is born

If the anti-Christ is real, then you

Are the anti-Christ, I am the anti-Christ

And he is the anti-Christ of before, once

Worth so much you will trick us to a golden age

I cannot compete there

Its not fair, play the trombone sally

I can play the mouth organ, blues harp

Like those old singers once sung, G Em C G

And all that freedom, man, I love that tuneIf only it were mine you would not have

To waste your time reading


24/27

23

Chasing Carnivals

I've been chasing carnivals all-round the beaten track

Following wherever the sideshows are a-heading

Through the furious thunder's rain

I've been riding on that train

Not knowing where my wandering wheels are taking

Watching late night fights between the boxer and the knight

Following where the warriors fists are a-heading

as the mighty monsters clash

Dancing girls will get the lashFor not knowing who her wandering hands are holding

The carnies they respond to the children being conned

Following where the money is a-heading

They give them one last game

For the remainder of their change

Not knowing who keeps the wandering money flowing

The girls swing from trapeze and they do it all with ease

Following where the human swings a-headingAnd they always almost fall

But they make it after all

Not knowing when their wandering fate is coming

The sunlight turns to dark and the children leave the park

They all get on the road to where they're a-heading

So I pack my bags up too

And keep chase the whole night through

Just knowing it's the carnival I'll be chasing


25/27

24

Freight Train Retreat (Extract)

The lamp flickers on and off

Alerting all the soldiers to silence

Not even the dead men dare to speak

But still they watch the princess in her zeppelin

Shes smoking out her enemies but she used to be so quiet

It happens to everybody eventually as the weeks turn to years

The doctor is in hiding

He only managed to do harmTo beg the president to get back out there

And his wife is in the kitchen sink drowning

She cant believe it she will never stop runningfrom the law

The executioners gun will never stop following herscentless trail

And the Harlequin is lying

She sets fire to her old school desk

Then the flames engulf the two in their foolish love

Their slaves sit in the dungeon no one knows who they are

The harlequin has found them but all she does is laugh at the painThey want to block her path but her corpse just walks around mortality

The angels in the alleyway

Its all one big gamble for their sins

All they see is death and no victory is reached

And their demons are still waiting for a chance to be cleansed

They are made mad by the rain that burns like acid on their red skin

And they will never remember the sentence they won from the hands of law


26/27

25

I Climb to Escape the Sunset

The darkness calls like a whispering lover.

I should never have left her to her own devices.

My orphaned hands are so cautious of crows who take copper

That even the croaking toad would refuse my offer.

The streets lights are my last sight as the fire starts

The funeral pyre burns like a tired heart fading.

Failing, falling to a crawl, like a tamed fortune.

I'm not as I remember.

Now the sun is low my shadow has grown faint.

It used to stretch so far ahead, now it trails behind.I'm not even a broken reflection of my memory.

Have I reached the end of the road?

There is no higher to go.

I'm at a peak and still the sun sets on what felt like a dawn.

I'm down to my last step as the gold fades.


27/27

26

The Corner of the Room

Standing on the harbor with her fingers in your hand

Two pairs of fading footsteps, wander across the sand

The minstrel boy is playing that old familiar tune

In the still dark corner of the room

You stumble without reason, youre heading for a fall

Theresnot a hope in heaven that could change anything at all

But well meet another time, under a different moon


Dawn rose on the distant hill, cast a shadow all alone

Shattered bottles lie on the floor of an empty broken home

Without any chance of waking, hes paralyzed at least till noon


Your eyes speak no spoken words, theyre looking like paradise lost

Your face it crumbles in the rain and cracks when attacked by frost

Laying down beside you, where all the flowers bloom


Standing on the harbor with her dust inside your hand

And the vision of a lover trail the golden sand

The sea breeze carries her ghost away into her final tomb


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The Experimental Selection - Michael Barfoot