One lone jagged stick,
Far below towering trees,
Broken from its home.

by Kendra Cook

Hannah and I
were stealing mailboxes
because we were drunk
and earlier
we had been jumping giant pool gates
half-naked
and since weren't successful
at getting to the other side
Hannah thought it'd be funny
if we opened car doors
and maybe kept
something from the inside,
so we did.
We were two daring drunkards
dashing from car to car
taking faded jeans
and fleece sweaters
and torn-up Nike shoes.
Now this morning I woke up and thought about
what I would do
with all of my new things
and found I had no use for Nikes.
So I dropped them off at Goodwill
came back to my apartment,
crawled into the bathroom,
and hurled like hell.
And after wiping gunk
from the far ends of my frown
I swore to myself
that what had happened that night
would not happen again.
Ha, but do you think that happened?

by Kendra Cook

Line your empty words
With parentheses
Extend them, fake and false
Shiny and showy
Give them reason, kinetics, class
And we will listen
And in each case, we too,will
Find our own meaning.

by Kendra Cook

"A holstered product secretly hunts after its own end product-"

                    "-not metal targets nor flying geese, but mortality."

A man, with graying hair and pursed lips, told me this. A well-trained and prayered piety had crept along, pounced, and overcome him. Like Edison, a creative obsession gripped his spine and puppeteered the entire body. It was a plague, he called it, or something like that. Even at a young age, gaurdian 1 & 2 lulled him to the steeple's hiding. He noted how the steeple was always at mast. His children would observe the same detail, live the same routine. I studied the curious character for weeks. A facsimile of the Word seemed permanently pressed on his brain, trapped behind devout eyes- For weeks I studied him, give me more time! Each biblical page was scribbled and creased, share and reused. -no longer. "My holster found its mortal tonight, friend. I'll raise the barrel and create a grand scene."

Slight pause, heavy breathe, slow speak. "Colossal at best."

by Kendra Cook