"Bare Feet on Linoleum" is a poem released by Lana Del Rey from her first poetry book Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass.
Background[]
The poem was featured in an article from Vogue Italia, along with "Never to Heaven", that was released on June 2, 2019.
Cross-references[]
- Sylvia Plath is mentioned in "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman like Me to Have – but I Have It".
- Being in a kitchen is also mentioned in "Stargirl Interlude".
- Amy is also mentioned in "Get Free".
- Being barefoot is also referenced in "Axl Rose Husband", "Lolita" and the poem "Patent Leather Do-Over".
- "That's all over now" also appears in "Cruel World".
- Catalina might be Santa Catalina Island, California, as Del Rey mentions using a boat to travel there.
- The phrase "Bored - but not unhappy" is similar to "I'm not bored or unhappy" from "Chemtrails Over the Country Club".
Poem[]
[Stanza 1]
Stay on your path Sylvia Plath
don't fall away like all the others
[Stanza 2]
Don't take all your secrets alone to your watery grave about
lovers and mother
[Stanza 3]
The secrets you keep will keep you in deep like Father and Amy
and brother
And all of the people you meet on the street will reiterate lies
that she uttered
[Stanza 4]
Leave me in peace I cry
In the middle of the night on a slow boat bound for Catalina for no reason
[Stanza 5]
Tiny beads of perspiration dot my forehead
could be mistaken for dew drops if this were photo season
[Stanza 6]
But alas this is a real life - and it's been a real fight just to
stop my mind from committing treason.
Why you ask?
Because she told the townspeople I was crazy, and the lies, they
started to believe them
[Stanza 7]
But anyway - that's all over now
[Stanza 8]
I've moved on, gone scorched earth
And now I'm left wondering where to go from here
To Sonoma where the fires have just left?
South Dakota?
[Stanza 9]
Would standing in front of Mount Rushmore feel like the Great
American homecoming I never had?
[Stanza 10]
Would the magnitude of the scale of the sculpture take the place
of the warm embrace I've never known.
[Stanzza 11]
Or should I just be here now
In the kitchen
Bare feet on linoleum
Bored - but not unhappy
Cutting vegetables over boiling water that I will later turn
into stew