Callum James

Drawing Down the Moon

If I draw you, sky-flint, down,
if I draw you down / and pulse and pulse /
and resting in my hand, fossil-face,
chalk-blue shadows, lemon whites
so bright, so squint they calcify light
/ and pulse and pulse / then on my palm
this pill, that smells of hospital,
that sits between the spasm and the calm
/ and pulse and pulse / this little pill
that surges with the tide, and sinks,
a chambered nautilus / and pulse and pulse /
and if I draw you down we float
in dark reaches, incessance, regularity of beat
and pulse and pulse.

Callum James is a bookdealer with a specialism in queer literature who writes about landscape, trauma, bodies and magic. Other work has appeared or is upcoming in Ambit, Magma, Orbis, The Dark Horse and others.