Punk Monk Press/Magazine

He called it a divine appointment and it made sense to me   he told me his story  about the straitjacket and injections and lithium and God.   he told me to never get on meds that mental illness is not real it’s something humans have created to better understand people like us people that express themselves in outrageous ways but that it doesn’t make us any less human or permanently ill from birth till death   he told me  he found his purpose through God he told me to find my light he told me not to let the darkness take me.   We shook hands I almost asked for a hug   He took off his sunglasses and I could see it in his eyes the crazy   Is that what people see when they look into mine? or do they not see what they don’t know? --Alien Baby

Terms and Conditions If you agree to date someone identifying as asexual, you can't just end things because the sex wasn't amazing. I mean, what the fuck did you expect, my guy? --Bethany Cutkomp

If I told you what was in my soul  Would you just laugh at me? Or would you understand? If I told you I want to run away  Would you nod and understand? Or just wonder what I’m running from? Every night  I drive around this town  And a little part of me dies Every day I see hope get a little further  And a little part of me dies  It’s been that way for all my life  Ever since I was just a kid And nobody’d understand  If I said I wanted to run away  They just asked what I was running from  It’s been that way for all these years  And I still want to run away  Every night  I drive around this town  And a little part of me dies Every day I see hope get a little further  And a little part of me dies  --Jason Beam

It’s possible that every woman has cried the same 29 flavours and varieties of tears ranging from petty sea salt and dark chocolate to guttural blue raspberry wound / probable that our voices were trained by the same wounded Mother or lofty Father / our guts chemically subdued then hardened in exposure / the hopeful intended twist is one to weakness / to make decorative trees with no roots / all flowers / we sort this out at group therapy: / sleepovers / quilting circles / bathroom sinks where the drunkest of us offers her lotion / her perfume / her balms / says try this it actually works / here’s what you gotta do / smell sexy with me / you’re so pretty, like, really / I lick the collective memory of middle school crushes / the desperation for beauty / off the strawberry lip gloss some of us had / others of us borrowed / we all used / and feel Eve is here too / it’s been a while since I swam in the deep end of girlhood all chummy with the blood of shaving scrapes / first times / myt...

Child Star and His Service Dog Found Dead In Car In Peoria Death stalks the parched air TV stars fall from the screen Human, just like us A Child Star, most beloved for his role as the sidekick of ALF on television, was found dead in his car after going to an ATM to deposit residual checks. The checks were in the car, uncashed, after so many years of being off the scene, off the screen, and off-grid from Hollywood, did he succumb to the heat? To the fright of defeat? Or to the ravages of bipolar disorder? He lived with that beast, and also his service dog, Hans, who perished beside him in the unforgiving Arizona aridity-- the car--a coffin with two bodies, was otherwise unremarkable, unnoticed for days, baking in temperatures over one-hundred and fifteen degrees, and that’s how it happens, isn’t it? By degrees. But what really transpired? Had his bubbling circumstances spilled over, withdrawing rational thought? Where were the checks and balances that would have left this pair, quite u...