From the outset the die was cast;
a forgetting of old worlds,
the reshaping of the new – breached in the garden.
The fuse and fire have ignited the world
and it must run its perilous course,
while Adam and Eve wander still
in search of a home and identity,
confused and distraught,
ashamed of their nakedness,
yet ever more beholden
to the lies which deceive them
Copyright Francis Barker 2019
Though time flies at biblical speed
the days feel longer;
staring at the rain and sodden fields
doesn’t make me any stronger.
I can’t listen to the radio or watch TV,
it’s wall to wall nonsense,
there’s nothing in it for me.
So I think of you
and your angel who said you’d return –
on heaven’s clouds,
in the twinkle of an eye.
Now just watch the world burn
copyright Francis Barker 2019
The year is waste.
Each venture outside is met with a snub,
a door closed,
the only resort is home and licking wounds.
Winter has arrived,
metaphoric snow piles high all around
and I’m checking cupboards for food.
I grab a biscuit, put on the fire
and watch the wind rattle roofs,
sitting tight until signs of spring appear
copyright Francis Barker 2019
It’s winter and all the seats are empty.
The numbing cold has forced them inside,
to sip insipid coffee and chew on bagels,
swallowing whole the words and images
ticking across primary coloured screens.
As for me, I like being with the birds.
They may be cold but no one tells them
where to go and what to believe.
And when I watch the crow
and his intelligent antics, no one can tell me
they don’t know what’s going on
copyright Francis Barker 2019
I see the effects of prevailing winds,
the stark trees morphed and twisted,
posts gnarled against the freeze and thaw,
the light and dark valkyries
raging across these blighted skies.
This may be natural or foisted upon us –
tell me, how can we be sure?
This world, I look around,
lost in time and out of place.
I feel like a stranger, alone more and more,
while some nature distorts and disfigures
the beauty I was taught to distrust
copyright Francis Barker 2019
Ciscography 