Juliet Cook


CORBICULA

My flight muscles are irregular.
Bumble, fumble, sudden flare
of small lavender fireworks
sparkling down like misplaced ellipses…

My flight muscles are typewriter keys.
Some of the letters’ suggestive shapes
honed into high relief by frenetic fingering;
shock absorbers worn to shreds.

My flight muscles are not exactly subtle.
A serrated curve that looked furry
became something sharp snagging a lip
in an incongruous direction, then spillage…

My flight muscles mix mold spores and cocoa nibs
into a fix for glottal constriction. Sudden tensed thighs
like mechanical pencils about to snap
off at the stems. Lead poisoning,

plumbago, drunk bees buzzing above
mutant fruit. A defective cherry bomb w/ glossy
candy-coated shell muting the fuse.
A tiny jawbreaker exits the follicle;

crash lands onto the page with poison sac pulsing…

THE WORD (CONTAINS THE HEART)

(a found poem of sorts, culled from a biological document about dissecting fetal pigs)


The vessels have been filled with red latex
and the mouth with blue. The first branch
contains the bypass. Insert one blade of scissors through;
cut. Identify the structures. Summarize the common duct system.

Use your pig and also a pig of the opposite sex.
Use a needle or the point of scissors, not a blunt probe,
to enable the opening. Open the jaw wide enough
the glottis and epiglottis are exposed. Uncoiled,

a blind pouch holds a fetal word. Inject the word
with a colored latex. After the word is born,
blood (rubber) sex serves upside-down systems.
Cut the sides of the mouth. Tie one front leg

of the animal with a string. With enlargements,
carefully peel the brownish skin away. The word
projects up, same as above (different pig).
Lift the word to reveal internal organs.

Observe the light-colored passage (to head).

Juliet Cook’s latest chapbooks of original poetry are available via BloodPuddingPress.etsy.com. Recent publication credits include Sein Und Werden, Wicked Alice, Thieves Jargon, listenlight, Kulture Vulture and Prick of the Spindle. Cook's personal blog, CandyDishDoom lives at www.xanga.com/CandyDishDoom. A new chapbook and her first full-length manuscript are sweetly slinking around, seeking publication.

 
 
 
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