Juliet Cook and Darryl Shupe

Model Arts and Crafts

This room is filled with nasty
paintings that use too much red.

An amalgamation of body
parts cut off the models.

The winning collages
shine red from the blood
of beets and chicken hearts
and other parts chopped
by the tractors discs,
spit from the combine chute.

Hairspray drips from the ceiling
like headless livestock for sale.
A giant cucumber is trapped inside chicken wire

Model Hog Heaven

This concession stand serves as a confessional booth
for the models who misbehave.

For the models who try to talk
instead of just silently screaming
inside their heads.

For the models who think
their brains are worth more
than breadcrumbs.

Their silly little breadcrumbs will be given
to the model birds.
Their bird brain breadcrumbs will be sprinkled
onto hog heaven on high.

In an act of involuntary penance,
the new models ooze blood
on their way to the slaughterhouse.

Their feet will be saved
to deep fry along with your heart.

Art Barn Torture

Two Industrial Arts models heads fused together,
jaws welded into an experimental act of inertia.
Their brains were off-kilter anyway,
before their necks were snapped.

So what if they're dead? Now they can be parts
of something greater, parts of the whole art barn.
This barn reeks of death. Choking death
from silo dust trapped in lungs.
Corn stalk razor blades cut fast and deep
to create peculiar new breeds.

Then kids drawings come to life.
Most are silly little creatures but
some of them jump from canvass to
flay your skin and dance
in their new flesh suits.

In the background, the sound of the carousel screams.

Like A Tortured Clown Funny

Who came up with this game?
Suffering inside a clown costume
while playing pin the tail on the donkey
using donkey models splayed to the wall.

Hyperventilating models in the middle
of a barrage of red strobe lights
like a haunted house dance club
in a horror movie.  Long clown shoes
nailed to the floor.  Drowning in manure.

Another screaming head stuck inside
another blood drenched clown suit.

(this poem's title exaggerates a line from the movie Goodfellas)

 

Juliet Cook is brimming with black, grey, silver, purple, and dark red explosions. She is drawn to poetry, abstract visual art, and other forms of expression. Her poetry has appeared in a peculiar multitude of literary publications.

Darryl Shupe is new to poetry (even though he's middle aged) and enjoys collaborating with his partner. In his spare time, he likes to work on cars because as he says, "how else does one come up with new swear words?"