Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in lots of print and online publications. She is the author of quite a few poetry chapbooks, recently including "Another Set of Ripped-Out Bloody Pigtails" (The Poet's Haven, 2019), "The Rabbits with Red Eyes" (Ethel Zine & Micro-Press, 2020) and "Histrionics Inside my Interior City" (in Ghost City Press's 2020 Summer Micro-Chapbook Series). Her most recent full-length poetry book, "Malformed Confetti" was published by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2018. She says pop, but rarely drinks it (she's more of a wine drinker), but if she had to pick a pop from years past, Mr. Pibb. Her website is at https://julietcook.weebly.com/
JULIET COOK
PASSENGER SEAT
Driving his cremains into unknown territory,
10 miles from a cheap hotel filled with unruly
remnants of life. Inside your head, a small tornado starts
and none of us can control this.
This violent encompassment tears off hinges, cracks open
the driver's side window, hurls the passenger
into a panic attack, heart palpitations,
internal screams, space crowded with people who don't care
about anyone else, trees who force their limbs
in your face and make you swallow the air bag,
mouths like carnivorous plants, exposing wide open contusions
stuffed full of never-ending death.