Juliet Cook

Hydra

Voice box more weedy than reedy.

Water snakes carry me down to dredge

and almost always poisonous. All this silt.

Sea sponges wrapped in leeches.  An opening

surrounded by tentacles. Baby hydrae clamp

onto hyacinth. I can make them detach

and free-float until they clamp again. Sucker punch.

Hydra, hydraulic, hydrocephalic. Something to sink

its teeth, something to suck out the toxins,

something to spit the toxins into another hole.

Juliet Cook’s poetry has appeared in Diode, Diagram, Octopus, Robot Melon, SIR!, WOMB and many other fine online and print sources.  She is the editor of Blood Pudding Press. She is the author of numerous quirky little chapbooks, most recently including Gingerbread Girl (Trainwreck Press), MONDO CRAMPO (coming soon from the dusie kollektiv 3) and PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR (coming soon from Spooky Girlfriend Press).  Her first full-length poetry collection, Horrific Confection was recently published by BlazeVOX.  For more Juliet information, please feel free to visit her website at www.JulietCook.weebly.com