Relax

Nightlight eyes
for when it's dark
outside, when other names
are less likely to interrupt me.

All the same, other bodies
won't stop staring
at my albino nightlights.
They want their own

eyes to be as red as mine.
They will pretend otherwise.
They will cut out one of my eyes,
swallow it, then try to replicate it.

They will somehow manage
to convince themselves
they're not torturing me.
They will tell me to relax
while they torture me.

They will suddenly stab me,
then tell me I'm the one
who is filled with animosity
just because I didn't stay silent.

I was only supposed to scream inside
my own one-eyed head.
I was only supposed to bleed in my own bed
after they got what they wanted.

Juliet Cook is brimming with black, grey, silver, purple, and dark red explosions. Her two most recent poetry chapbooks are red flames burning out (Grey Book Press, April 2023) and Contorted Doom Conveyor (Gutter Snob Books, July 2023) and she also has another new poetry chapbook, Your Mouth is Moving Backwards, forthcoming from Ethel Zine & Micro Press. Find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com.