Juliet Cook

Out of Date

I might be a legend of fun socks
and outdated hair style.
Repetitive crooked lines.

One reason
I maintain these bangs
is to hide what's underneath.

My bulbous forehead crawls
with insects circumnavigating
the brain canal. I stomp on the latest baby 

centipedes racing around my kitchen floor,
trying to get all the attention
even though they can't even speak
for themselves, then trying to hide from me.

I don't filter my white hairs
or my face, but my eyes might be growing
darker and caring less
like dried out brain flowers. 

Sometimes I can think happy
thoughts about brains,
but then I think everyone dies.

Dripping Down

I feel like I'm more than one.
I feel like I'm less than everyone
or less than I should try to be.

In my neck,
I hear the cornfields

continually sway then shrink,
as if trying to shrivel themselves,

degenerate further away
from normalcy. Create their own

oblivion. Interconnected with
biting my own tongue,
then shutting my own mouth.

I swell then freak out.
Drip blood down the lowliest drain
and hide it from others.

Strained noise pierces through
skin like broken glass.

My dirty skin is flaking off old
window frames who acted like they were in charge

until they cracked, fell apart,
left nothing but a freezing cold hiss.

Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in many print and online publications. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks, most recently including red flames burning out (Grey Book Press, 2023), Contorted Doom Conveyor (Gutter Snob Books, 2023), Your Mouth is Moving Backwards (Ethel Zine & Micro Press, 2023), and REVOLTING (Cul-de-sac of Blood, 2024). She has another new poetry chapbook, Blue Stingers Instead of Wings forthcoming from Pure Sleeze Press in Spring 2025. Her most recent full-length poetry book, Malformed Confetti was published by Crisis Chronicles Press. Cook also sometimes writes collaborative poetry and also sometimes creates abstract painting collage art hybrid creatures. Cook's tiny independent press, Blood Pudding Press, sometimes publishes hand-designed poetry chapbooks and sometimes creates other art. You can find out more at https://julietcook.weebly.com/.