No compass for wrack
They say, in the north country
rain has lost its bearings
and wanders seeking a daughter
or son to remember the touch
of earth on cheek and knee.
How bones, out of kilter
keep clear of steeping gulch
and scry for penance in feldspar
weigh each measure of loss
to shy at every consequence.
Deep south, the indifferent sky
curls back a sodden blanket
and stars take binary turns
switching on and off by rote
for a reader some light reaches.
waiting for cache
from the overburden night
we return to normal time
as though a flick of a switch
the reverse of hands tallies
for the fox in the lane
a possum pausing mid bite
the shiver inside Autumn,
some cuttle fish shining
a humour of the once living
trespassed moon guilty of release
quiet seeds abed
and all around this throbbing
shakes against listed constraint
countless the resident hurt,
as slow heartbeats trial day
wake for bridling purpose
dreams crash against the guide
rub a wing flapped eye
oaths of life are sworn anew
whatever is now called leaps
over the warble of what was
James Walton is published in many anthologies, journals, and newspapers. He is the author of four widely acclaimed collections of poetry. ‘The Leviathan’s Apprentice’, ‘Walking Through Fences’, ‘Unstill Mosaics’, and ‘Abandoned Soliloquies’. His fifth collection will be released shortly. He was nominated for ‘The Best of the Net’ 2019, and is a Pushcart Prize 2021 nominee.
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