Cat Russell's Reviews > DARK PURPLE INTERSECTIONS

"DARK PURPLE INTERSECTIONS (inside my Black Doll Head Irises)" by Juliet Cook


This well named and darkly introspective poetry collection contains verses about love and loss, self doubt, and growing older. Juliet Cook, a self-styled grotesque glitter witch medusa hybrid, has a unique and visceral way of viewing the world, comparing herself to voiceless dolls and using unique imagery to paint a vivid portrait of dealing with depression and aging in a world that values youth and joviality.


From "Perhaps there are specters inside me"
She died after her phantom pregnancy
turned into cancer. A baby shaped tumor.
I almost died after my misinterpretation of love
started to multiply into blind eye lies.


From "A phone call Without Caller I.D."
woke me
from another dream
in which I was offering my ex-husband
a platter filled with
all sorts of food from inside me,
but it was all expired.


From "He was tired of hearing about my stroke and my poetry"
Dismembered brain
waves
like a broken doll hand.


From "Some people jump faster than others."
This tiny white doll
with no eyes
or nose or mouth
would never have been able to speak for herself
until I turned her red,
exaggerated her face
until it was big enough that I could live inside it.


I lost the doll when I lost
a lot of things or left them
inside an old house,
that used to be mine


Each poem uses the first line as the title in this handmade chapbook, beautifully bound with glittery thread that doubles as a bookmark. If good things come in small packages, this chapbook is a treasure.