The cemetery cat asleep on the warm headstone
careless of the worthy mason’s curfew
ignores the adjustment to place
my fingernails caught in the fierce scree of memory
I try to place the language of a pebble
from when we slept huddled at Roaring Meg
waking laughing snoring back at snowflakes
carried by a pilgrim’s wanderlust
its granule beat beyond a relic’s blessing
there is a continent between us
they are strangers, your family, after our time
even now do they know about your toe rings?
those keepsakes of the Kush market
a lonely chorus hum slips through forearm hair
the release of doves falters songs escape
an evening bids by light too short
this redeemed concession out of was
now a stranger’s lilt toward recovery
a best suit shrouds over like a shag of wet ravens
graphite slow motion by crease endowed
you wanted to be buried a Viking
but here we are among the kindling
still held apart between oft trodden roads
Shall I introduce this parting remnant
fill in the song lines of your mystery
leave it to flicker by the sun translated?
James Walton was a librarian, a farm laborer, and mostly a public sector union official. His poetry collections include 'The Leviathan's Apprentice' 2015 Publish and Print U.K., 'Walking Through Fences' 2018 ASM & Cerberus Press, 'Unstill Mosaics' Busybird 2019, and 'Abandoned Soliloquies' UnCollected Press 2019.
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