Mutant Neuron Codex Swarm, Juliet Cook and Robert Cole
Under horror of abandonment, she implored him lick her feather
before it melted. He knew how to stick his fingers through
candied eggs and waxy pink cicatrices. He knew how to turn
torn locust wings into an abstract series of dark splotched guts.
Dark black church bells hot in the blankets (she’s melting).
Fountains that churn liquid cement, not water (he’s hardening).
He wants to erode her scapula. Pluck out her neurons.
Flambé birds sizzle up her sleeves. Cyanotype her
from blood drenched to cryogenic witch
-- Nether Cord, from Mutant Neuron Codex Swarm
"Mutant Neuron Codex Swarm swarms with unexpected delights for the sybil nymph, the cryogenic witch, the blue goddess and more. Here the body with its twisted wings, heart strings, and sticky salivary gland salutations, is a body that knows Nobody can touch us anymore and nobody can save us. Whose body you wonder? Are they Human? Truth is, as Cook and Cole explain, You decide. How do you decide? You enter with the collaborating pair into an incomplete metamorphosis where you’re commanded DON’T stop DON’T stop DON’T stop DON’T you dare! and told homeless men walk around with sporks. So sit back and allow Cole and Cook to place the napkin just so, for Mutant Neuron Codex Swarm purrs with language play, with surprising imagery, and with an attention to sound that will razzle dazzle the neurons in this thrilling new collaborative chapbook."
- Laura Madeline Wiseman, author of First Wife
About Juliet Cook
Juliet Cook’s poetry has appeared in many literary publications, recently including Arsenic Lobster, Diode, ILK, Menacing Hedge, and Tarpaulin Sky Press. She is the author of more than thirteen chapbooks, including POISONOUS BEAUTYSKULL LOLLIPOP (Grey Book Press, 2013), RED DEMOLITION (Shirt Pocket Press, 2014), and a new collaborative chapbook with j/j hastain, Dive Back Down (forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press in 2015). Find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.
About Robert Cole
Robert Cole is among the winners of the 2013 Nazim Hikmet Poetry Competition and his writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Connotation Press, Tarpaulin Sky, Menacing Hedge, Jet Fuel Magazine, Dreginald, Thirteen Myna Birds, Sein und Werden and elsewhere. He currently lives and works in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
