by James Callan
Through my window
streetlights become stars
Stellar remnants
veiled by the the bellows of a ghost forge
Amazon fog, or jungle mists of Belize
shower door tic-tac-toe
and dinosaur doodles
Our cat’s game reemerging
returning to life
like raptors in Jurassic Park.
Sundown over soy
Super Target horizon
Red moon
Corpse-cold blue
bleached of hue
Drinking by the fire
wearing knee-high festive socks,
reading the book of the film I had seen
Spoiling the ending
by telling you who dies.
Paper boats sink, you said
when I was a child
Your face wavering between the suds,
between my thighs
Gray water
spiraling down
Like Twister, starring Bill Paxton
Near Dark
and other films—
Film upon the surface, funneling to an end.
****
James Callan discovered the film,The Shining, by watching another film, Twister. As a little boy, he thought the bullseye logo of Target stores was the eye of Sauron. His favorite creature in Jurassic Park is Laura Dern. He lives in Aotearoa (New Zealand).