Juliet Cook

NOT A BABY DOLL

Maybe those baby birds answered a question
in a way that the wind didn't like
and then received a short response,
a simple "Never mind",
before they were flung
out of their nest
and ignored

and replaced
with an unmoving doll.

Maybe that mother placed the real baby back inside
her mortar and pestle. Started grinding
while thinking about blackbird pie
because I was her least favorite baby.
The baby who couldn't sit still.
The baby who didn't want to stay
in the space she had placed me.

I'd rather create my own space capsules
and let them float out of my own mouth.

Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in a small multitude of magazines, including Arsenic Lobster, DIAGRAM, Diode, FLAPPERHOUSE, Menacing Hedge and Reality Beach. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks, recently including POISONOUS BEAUTYSKULL LOLLIPOP (Grey Book Press, 2013), RED DEMOLITION (Shirt Pocket Press, 2014), a collaboration with Robert Cole called MUTANT NEURON CODEX SWARM (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2015), and a collaboration with j/j hastain called Dive Back Down (Dancing Girl Press, 2015). Cook's first full-length poetry book, “Horrific Confection”, was published by BlazeVOX and her second full-length poetry book, "Malformed Confetti" is forthcoming from Crisis Chronicles Press. Find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.