Barnesy's Finest Selections



The Severed Garden

Wow, I'm sick of doubt

Live in the light of certain

south

Cruel bindings

The sevants have the power

dog-men & their mean women

pulling poor blankets over

our sailors

I'm sick of dour faces

Staring at me from the T.V.

Tower, I want roses in

my garden bower; dig?

Royal babies, rubies

must now replace aborted

Strangers in the mud

These mutants, blood-meal

for the plant that's plowed

they are waiting to take us into

the severed garden

Do you know how pale & wanton thrillful

comes death on a stranger hour

unannounced, unplanned for

like a scaring over-friendly guest you've

brought to bed

Death makes angels of us all  & gives us wings

where we had shoulders

smooth as raven's claws

No more money, no more fancy dress

This other kingdom seems by far the best

until its other jaw reveals incest

& loose obedience to a vegetable law

I will not go

Prefer a feast of friends

To the Giant family


Graveyard Poem

It was the greatest night of my life

although I still had not found a wife

I had my friends right there beside me

We tripped the wall

We scaled the graveyard

Ancient shapes were all around us

The wet dew felt fresh beside the fog

Two made love in an ancient spot

One chased a rabbit into the dark

A girl got drunk and balled the dead

And I gave empty sermons to my head

Cemetery, cool and quiet

Hate to leave your secret lay

Dread the milky coming of the day


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If anyone is wondering the significance and the relation of Barnesy to Lizard King poetry well let's just say that one night whilst sinking some piss on the banks of the Yarra River in Warrandyte ,Barnesy reflected on some of his childhood days when an older and widely respected local citizen of the town said something to Barnesy as he was leaving . . . something that changed his life forever:
 


"until we meet, our shadows may pass but if you are not awake you will hear the muffled scream,then you may run,run to the lake,the top of the lake where the lizard king resides"


 


At the time Barnesy didn't know what the man meant and he carried on with his normal life.   That was the last thing this man said to anybody, before his death (alcohol poisoning) .  But this night many, many years later, Barnesy pondered the meaning of this statement and he eventually worked out the awareness of life that this man was trying to pass on to the next generation of "chosen ones".  Barnesy than knew that his goal, his objective in life was to follow the lyrical genius's work in discovering the meanings and emotions that lied beneath the mere words on a page and beneath the commonly reguarded ideas of what his writing meant and discovering the perplexity that was actually quite simple to a few - and Barnesy . . . was one of those few . . .