Sunday always has that gamey flavoura secret tilt of baking dish, the table spoonof flour. My arm in redoubt against a raiding fork,the last of the potatoes, salty crisp top of mouth.Toddlers falling off the soft chocolate of family,lips fat with mutton, mashed peas for chins.Mint by the gulley trap in a mauve furze of … Continue reading By a window, mid Fall
Author: James Walton
Sorting the Morning
I am waiting for dayhere in the bed without youspreadeagled on secondsthat take light years to arrive and depart.Going over your letters and postcardsI wonder if love can be diminished in transitso giddy I might lose myselfin the slippery travertine of words and images.I’m volley balling the moonpretending to focus somehow resoluteif I look at … Continue reading Sorting the Morning
Roman Baths
this morning stretchof extracted core samplea study of antipodescan’t assay in proof your first kiss to my bellythat falling butterfly tapestryor what my hand translatesin the sleuth of your back these separate roomsas breathing needs sleepnot to tell the childrenof this old ruin you and me where the hypocaustintact between the villasis stoked with more than … Continue reading Roman Baths
Swan
For if I die tonightI’ve seen the grace in descenta conclave of souls by mirthbeneath a gravity of feathersas the sudden embracing stillnessits impossible conclusion in symmetryleans back holding trapped air in posetouchdown to the surface mirroredgliding in most gentle repose
A Day at the Louvre
The dog and the antelope knewblue was mortal and could not be relied uponfor any journey to an afterlife,where the sphinx‘s nose was caught in the jamband marked a broken traitor. Floating in a green jelly of aspic frogsorange with the sun behindwe laughed over ham sandwiches without butter,watching the fish in the pool knowing … Continue reading A Day at the Louvre
Egon Schiele at Krumlov
“The line does not end where the arm ends,but where the thought leaves the line.”Leopold Museum, Vienna As the lapidarian eye placed a caressabove the stocking end line casting aboutin the cascading thought for blue shiners,fledged to reflect lacy signatures in thoseimprints of yearn falling away fromskin folds of studious art endeavours,where button breasts diamante … Continue reading Egon Schiele at Krumlov
12.56pm Eastern (Guest blog: James Walton)
Ginger Essence
Mawson you were my heroholding to an ember inthe stubbed out ends of flinty life;flickering wraiths pilfering from smother driftconscious of your will just glowing there. Did you wake at the barking for the rest of it,how they circled in love for you,licks telling all their secretsa whimpering prayer of cold necessityin an adoring brush … Continue reading Ginger Essence
Portrait of the Artist as a (un) Young Man
My short story 'Rendered, blank in pages' has been published by Overland Literary Journal. Please have a read. https://overland.org.au/2020/09/fiction-rendered-blank-in-pages/?fbclid=IwAR1asypiaCMYOEHRkWrNIHBRFT8lnydm5HW0MI5aBIqalLu3V0ABMZ51tIc
Neil Armstrong’s Three Stage Punctuation
In the slow orbit of wombatsmy house hangs on to the hill,the yellow frog flaunts the leaping crimson spinnaker of its jumpto the swallows’ rue at my reflective door,white lightning shudders in lift off from another countdown. Wind dies. Apple blossom carries the love letter kiss of butterflies,delivered in the slow somersault breezemoon landing clumsy, … Continue reading Neil Armstrong’s Three Stage Punctuation