New Poetry by James Walton

The Transmission of Leaves

This is the transmission of leaves
the eatings worth of physillids
a dusting of nigella seed
within the guilty fingerprint

by the unravelling meander after rain

all cochineal as maple floats
those burnt ceramics of summer
now cracked and soothed under shade

turned to a gentle tajine of promise

an exclamation of hover flies pretending honey
a flutter of thoughts to native bees
out of the thirst for white ironbarks

waves of Jackie Winters hustle refraction
through a band of coppiced saplings
a glisten in outrageous hemlines 
of pleated scarlet firmament

where steppe nomads prance
their cupid dance of migration

while the butcher bird is unwrapping
all the glossy paper

toting up how many shades of bark
in reams of paisley decadence
it will take to dress this naked garden
amongst the lust of leucoxylons.


- James Walton 2019

James Walton lives in South Gippsland. He was a librarian, a farm labourer, a cattle breeder, and mostly a public sector union official. He is published in many newspapers, journals, and anthologies, and has been shortlisted for the ACU Prize, the MPU International Prize, the James Tate Prize, and Jupiter Artland. His books include The Leviathan's Apprentice  2015, Walking Through Fences 2018, and Unstill Mosaics (forthcoming).