Leonard Cohen and Me, Not by the Levee by James Walton

​Leonard  Cohen and Me, Not  by the Levee


In a cruciform town
built of stone and sweat
they laid us both down
for the crime of theft


we swam ourselves naked
shook a fist at the moon
where the oily anointed
are past dead too soon


      that’s what you get baby
      for wanting to be free
      that’s what you get baby
      for wanting to be free
 

I kissed tattooed children
their faceless smiles also
way beyond the power of ten
there on your blessed torso


they came in the night
too afraid of the day
a list of what was right
their fears to allay


      and that’s what we got baby
      for wanting to be free
      and that’s what we got baby
     for wanting to be free


our bodies are our irony
a scorn of deliberate charade
away from that cold cold valley
the fulcrum of us was made


we stole the lonely chastity
giving everything we had
they told us it was blasphemy
go tell them we were glad


      and that’s what we got baby
      for wanting to be free
     and that’s what we got baby
     between you and me




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Bio: James Walton has been published in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, and many journals and anthologies. He has been short listed twice for the ACU national Literature Prize, is a double prize winner in the MPU International Poetry Prize, and Specially Commended in The Welsh Poetry Competition. ​

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