NEW! Juliet Cook is delighted to have a poem appearing in HSTQ: Spring 2025, the latest curated collection from Horror, Sleaze and Trash!

"I might let the black cat sleep
on my bed but he keeps hissing as if on the brink
of attacking his best friend, which I pretend is me,
but I'm nobody's best friend and never will be again.
The black cat will soon morph into another venomous rat,
secreting an evil fetus that is born to die. I won't name him.

I'm not a fan of naming someone after someone else.
I want everyone to be themselves, not part of another
herd. I'm not a ceiling fan except in that
repeated nightmare in which the fan lobs off heads
like a guillotine hanging from my bedroom ceiling."

part of Cook's long-ish poem, "The Age of Vicissitude"

I'm delighted to have this poem appearing within HSTQ: Spring 2025, the latest curated collection from Horror, Sleaze and Trash!

You can download this new collection for FREE here - https://horrorsleazetrash.com/2025/06/19/hstq-spring-2025/

This poem also appears in Cook's most recently published chapbook, "Blue Stingers Instead of Wings" (Pure Sleeze Press, 2025), which is still available to be acquired from Pure Sleeze here - https://puresleezepress.bigcartel.com/

Or from Blood Pudding Press here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/4314653197/new-blue-stingers-instead-of-wings-by