Punk Monk Press/Magazine

With horror You see your Latest Chapbook Of Poetry Sitting On the Coffee Table At the Family Gathering Chips and Dip Are all Around Cheese And Crackers And Surprisingly Your Soul. --Mike Meraz

I told her she looked beautiful, ageless.... I told her we'd both be hitting forty soon.... She lurched, gasped, guffawed      and I told her not to laugh, she'd hit the mark first.... Again she shifted, buckled      in hysterics until it was necessary       for her bedding      to get rearranged properly      with the help of the night duty           nurse.... I told her it wouldn't take      another six months before I      visit again....                               Oakland, 1995 --;RHOADE

A man should have a vise To clamp things downTo be worked onConvolutedBentThe way he wantsYou don’t need a big jaw openingOr jaw widthIt’s nice to haveAn anvil on one sideSo you can smash things on itThroat size doesn’t matter eitherSometimes the littlest thingsAre the ones you need to keep track ofSo they won’t get awayTiny thingsPunyInsignificantSmall enoughTo drive you nutsIf you let themBut you won’tBecause you have aMasterforce Five and a half inchDouble jaw viseClamped to your workbenchAnd so do IGot it yesterdayNow nothing’s going anywhereNone of those little troublesome thingsThat vex meNot todayNever  --Paul Smith

This piece was originally performed at Cha Island on March 26, 2015 for our local Speak Your Peace! event. It was amazing.     Where We Are Real ~~~~~~~~~~ I'm looking at my photos checking myself out because I'm hot and stuff. Time and time again I notice there's a line going across my neck in two places Is it- an illusion, a manifestation or a scar? I think- it's a stretch mark from the ways in which I've grown since I left you. I'm no longer afraid to stand as tall as I could've been I no longer take for granted: my breath. You- stole my oxygen. I never asked you to sweep me off my feet. I just wanted a place to live, to rest my head, you promised a bed. That's all I wanted. ~ When you call me by birthname You are contributing to the circumstances which led to my rape. I was trying to figure out when it happened by scrolling through instagram selfies, hoping to catch a look in my mismatched eyes indicating that I'd