Almanac Poetry: ‘The Koo Wee Rup Exchange’ – James Walton
The Koo Wee Rup Exchange
A short-listing trip to the city
and the buses meet each other,
caterpillars plump and expectant
linking up for the Island as the kids,
release tents the hope of backpacks.
Drinking wine with three nuns
one plays Sounds of Silence,
another hums You Keep Me Hangin’ On
the invitation of a grand piano,
splits its sides drawing ambition.
We chat with the hymn section winner
still bleary flown in from the States,
the musicians are three decades younger
suits and gowns good teeth and hands,
fingers fret to each other’s anticipation.
Sister Joseph has had enough decorum
gets evicted reinterpreting Chopin,
as the poets start the place getter readings
Oh you didn’t come first she gurgles at me,
I’m not so sure about that we smile.
Every Punter A Winner says the sign
as Southern Cross Station holds the 8.39,
and the buses puff that last call step fall
with a terminus thrum for tickets cats lost property,
while I thumb the anthology finding mine.
More from James Walton can be read Here.
More poetry from Almanac Poetry can be read HERE
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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.
What a ride! You have a wondrous way with words, James.