My friend and my enemy
are buried together
where the peat is frozen as glass
over by Bartlet’s Outlet
the falls we played beneath
a chandelier of tears
side by side
the child and the adult
grow under the mound
patted gently with spades
of rifles loaded from Sundays
an armistice culls the night
its preparatory days
wound through this shared village
life in a slow yeast
our days broken and unsealed
drafty windows blown out
of the class room photos doors ajar.
First published in Nine Muses Poetry Editor Annest Gwilym September 2018
Abandoned Soliloquies UnCollected Press Ellicott City MD USA 2019
James Walton Poetry 