Punk Monk Press/Magazine

  i am here & i am now, feigning sobriety as much as i can, gimme a fix or gimme a blow job or gimme gimme gimme CPR, maybe hold my hand and walk with me for a mile or two, maybe smile for half o' second, i don' really know, maybe whisper something in my ear, maybe whisper something in my ear. --Joseph James Cawein

Rent: $265/month. My mother had no other options, her stipend for fourteen years of marriage to a burning bed. We saw nothing but a shitty neighborhood, a rooftop accessible from the bathroom window. At dusk we exited like burglars and smoked her stolen cigarettes, trying on adulthood like a half slip. She saw only freedom, a place where bruises heal.     --April Salzano

I'm so busy only coffee calms me down. Here's my paystub: it's another genome. When I was small I thought I was all. Now older wiser, a microscopic mouth. If reincarnation got commodified I probably could afford only being me. Adhesive is my overtime; I use a flashlight full of numbers. Married 50 years to myself — divorce papers. I have fonts for lunch & symptoms for dinner. My pension is voicemail laryngitis. I'm so busy my dreams drink coffee. --Craig Kurtz 

  Hi, and welcome to the profession Don't expect any recognition And don't expect adequate monetary compensation You - madam or sir - are doing bitches' work Let me clarify Your profession is a gendered space So whether you are cunt blessed Or whether you are cock afflicted You are a cunt In our eyes And you will be treated And paid accordingly We do not value your work If it served any purpose It would be a field populated by us You Along with all the rest of your ilk The teachers The nurses The social workers Are bitches and cunts Whether you are cunt blessed Or whether you are cock afflicted And you will be treated And paid accordingly.   --Alfonso Colasuonno