Almanac Poetry: ‘Mercury and Icarus’ by James Walton
Mercury and Icarus
In my early teens
my next door neighbour
was conscripted
after he turned nineteen
he came back from Vietnam
with a hole in his leg above his knee
it had its uses
a pencil could be passed through it
or a safe view of the occasional eclipse
would be offered to the initiated
he deputised for his mother
delivering the mail on her PMG bike
following the milk and bread deliveries
we played in the same team
his nickname was ‘Fly’
there were soft Winter afternoons
when warm light off the windscreens
crossed the boundary lines
refracting to appear as dance
when he ran towards goal
his boots ascending as he kicked
the backline distracted in a shedding aureole
of a lens in soft muscle
on a Saturday when it still rained
he suddenly pushed an umpire to the ground
threw the ball into the standing watchers
walked away with his studs flinging mud
out of earth cold as old wax
he sent a postcard from Crete
James Walton
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About James Walton
James Walton is published in many anthologies, journals, and newspapers. He has been shortlisted for the ACU National Poetry Prize, the MPU International Poetry Prize, The James Tate Prize, and the Ada Cambridge Prize. Five collections of his poetry have been published. He was nominated for ‘The Best of the Net’ 2019, and was a Pushcart Prize 2021 nominee. He is a winner of the Raw Art Review Chapbook Prize. His fifth poetry collection, Snail Mail Cursive, was published by Ginninderra Press in January 2023. He now resides in Wonthaggi, Australia, in an Edwardian house which was once a small maternity hospital.
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Love that line, James, about the light crossing the boundary line. Hope Fly survived Crete.