ASHLEY COOKE - POEMS

Ashley Cooke is a creative writing major attending Long Beach City College. She is from Long Beach, CA. She is currently working on her first poetry collection. 

---

​Settle

​Don’t let the hurt settle
open the blinds in the old room
paint the walls a brighter color
and bleach the doorknobs
send it packing in droves
evict it and call a cab
no thirty day notice
don’t watch it leave
or you might miss
what is coming.

​Pressed

​ 
"I bet you give every girl this poem"
she says as I drop it at her feet
she picks it up and sets it in her lap
"You can't lie to me"
she opens it up and begins to read
her eyes shift fast across the lines
but as she reads on she slows down 
stopping at every line
every word 
that’s when she realizes I've truly captured her
placing her in a jar she could never fly out of
I preserved her in time
like a flower pressed behind glass.

Space
​

​On earth I sit and watch her
wild and free above me
my soul mate, my Venus
she is the brightest to me
the storm in her soul rests on Jupiter
she dances with my tongue on Mars
I breathe in her soft laugh
her fingers grasp Saturn’s ring
as I slip it onto her finger
she grips my sides tightly
as she takes me above.