by James Walton
there is a vacancy in my house
that cannot be occupied
an emptiness
lost to deer by fading
headlights are her weakness
an urge to perform
a hand painting given rainbow air
the schooled leap of cosine dance
one precise bound only
across dizzy evening margins
where the vacancy in my house
cannot give audience to an elegance
four becomes one momentarily
in a Fonteyn of grace
she vanishes off stage
as night sways
like a bead curtain
after someone has stepped through
James Walton was a librarian, a farm labourer, a cattle breeder, and mostly a public sector union official. He is published in many anthologies, journals, and newspapers. He lives in an isolated farming community in the Strzelecki Mountains is South Gippsland, Australia. He has been short listed twice for the ACU National Literature Prize, and was commended in the Welsh Poetry Competition.
