Falling Down Off the Bar Table
In this dark bar the sounds
aren’t scars. They are shots
from dream scenes.
Shots of whiskey or
shots in a Doctor's office.
Unnamed plots in a cemetery.
Unswimming fish in a giant aquarium then
fishy dinner in a sanitarium.
Unsmiling jukebox hung
from the ceiling. Peeling paint
and the serpents lurking beneath.
Squealing bitch tongues.
More fish eggs slide down throats.
A tiny rollercoaster ride for no one to object to
until every hinge cracks.
Defective light bulbs kill ghosts or turn them
into hugs being given between different
flavors of jolly ranchers.
Red neck, blue neck, let's pin the tail on
the purple. Hit the piñata sporting the face of
a new trajectory attack. Then intervene
by shifting the italics in the opposite direction;
by replacing every other m with a w
and every other man with a wolf.
Running in place of his own two feet
or are there more than two?
Is there an ape with thousands of eyes?
Or a planet with thousands of pitfalls
made by what people have fallen in
before they've figured out how long they can hold
their own breath. Use the pliers or the wrench,
one in each hand. They might be all you have
to hold onto anymore.
In this dark bar the sounds
aren’t scars. They are shots
from dream scenes.
Shots of whiskey or
shots in a Doctor's office.
Unnamed plots in a cemetery.
Unswimming fish in a giant aquarium then
fishy dinner in a sanitarium.
Unsmiling jukebox hung
from the ceiling. Peeling paint
and the serpents lurking beneath.
Squealing bitch tongues.
More fish eggs slide down throats.
A tiny rollercoaster ride for no one to object to
until every hinge cracks.
Defective light bulbs kill ghosts or turn them
into hugs being given between different
flavors of jolly ranchers.
Red neck, blue neck, let's pin the tail on
the purple. Hit the piñata sporting the face of
a new trajectory attack. Then intervene
by shifting the italics in the opposite direction;
by replacing every other m with a w
and every other man with a wolf.
Running in place of his own two feet
or are there more than two?
Is there an ape with thousands of eyes?
Or a planet with thousands of pitfalls
made by what people have fallen in
before they've figured out how long they can hold
their own breath. Use the pliers or the wrench,
one in each hand. They might be all you have
to hold onto anymore.
Juliet Cook is brimming with black, grey, silver, purple, and dark red explosions. She is drawn to poetry, abstract visual art, and other forms of expression. Her poetry has appeared in a peculiar multitude of literary publications. Her most recently published poetry collection is the chapbook, "The Rabbits With Red Eyes" (Ethel Zine & Micro Press, March 2020). You can find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.
j/j hastain is a collaborator, writer and maker of things. j/j performs ceremonial gore. Chasing and courting the animate and potentially enlivening decay that exists between seer and singer, j/j hopes to make the god/dess of stone moan and nod deeply through the waxing and waning seasons of the moon.
j/j hastain is a collaborator, writer and maker of things. j/j performs ceremonial gore. Chasing and courting the animate and potentially enlivening decay that exists between seer and singer, j/j hopes to make the god/dess of stone moan and nod deeply through the waxing and waning seasons of the moon.