Punk Monk Press/Magazine

I never thought it would happen to me In this invited way A night spreading out like any other A night with open arms With awkward conversation and questions and whisky You asked if you could kiss me And later you held my hand I hope you break both your knuckles  I lit candles and dimmed the lights and put on my favourite Bowie record Lay down on my pink sheets Red silk underwear My body a bouquet Where was the moon when I needed her? Why weren’t there foxes screaming bloody murder outside? Why wasn’t my gut doing anything at all? I thought I knew all of my feelings by that point  I thought I had felt it all The full spectrum from red right through to blue That it couldn’t happen to me in this way  Because I would always want it And I always wanted it I used to keep a list of all the boys I had slept with  I don’t think I can add you to it After you lay there your hands behind your head Itching for your clothes, for the door  I felt strange My hands felt small a...

  It’s all happening!!! Visceral Uterus’ editor C E Hoffman is celebrating the release of their short story collection, Sluts and Whores, published via Thurston Howl Publications.  We’d love you to join the (virtual) party!  There will be games, readings, performers, and a book giveaway, all to be enjoyed through the safety and comfort of your own home on Zoom! Save the date ( February 13, 2021! ) and stay tuned for more info!  Download Zoom here  (It's free!) Buy C's quote posters  here  !  Keep creating! Lots of love  C 

new plans r underw(ay/eight) so here’s my worth -less say if i have 2 live & die as a pig I want 2 make sure a pig can hop on a train drop its ass right next to a unicorn ’s especially if i can feel the fairy princess still inside me glittering her flitterwings against my spinesucked belly  lying in grass gazing deep into the Pond of (I/U)nsight coaxing baby bunnies out from stagefright to pinklight i can do it all if i just clutch through the daynight the hope i never feel the fairy princess still inside me --Clarice Hare

Halloween’s here! ie:   Lucky Girl’s NEW SINGLE, Arm Candy, is OUT NOW!  And it merits backstory.  I refrain from divulging intimately on the internet. In this instance, honesty is worth sacrificing some discretion.  Halloween is about shadow. Embracing, accepting, even celebrating it (within reason.) It brings scars to light. This song reveals qualities I try to hide: my clinginess, neediness, my inability to let go. A side most typically induced via entanglement with narcissists.  I hope this song will comfort those who struggle to exit toxic situations. As for those who made it through: consider it our power anthem (particularly the third verse.)  It’s best we all stay home this Halloween. May this song accompany your cozy indoor ventures! Gratuitous thanks to TC, an awe-inspiring producer/musician. (All instrumental and cover design credit goes to you!) Thanks to Lauren at Chatters for the rockstar hair, and to Candy Candy, for supplying the candy neck...

Today, I learned that forever is the dirtiest word. It's a lie we tell to children; Santa, Bunny, Forever. The dreamer in me took her last breath; wanting to believe in the storybook, but seeing only poison apples and bloody spindles splattered on the chapters in my brain. It was a pretty lie, forever, thinking you could be that missing piece, the only one whose edges fit perfectly into that groove. But, you never were.  Someone else's trash, can get shoved right in, sitting there,  the final pebble to really take you down.  The things that make you feel worthless, cementing that you always were, just a jagged piece, not worth loving, not worth honesty, not worth much. And, maybe you've always seen it, blurred indications, ignored, stacking up in your heart, weighing it down. I am a learner, but I didn't know a heart could break twice. I didn't know friends slithered in the grass; I didn't expect two knives; I didn't know it was all a test. Everyone's fa...

She calls up and asks if I’m coming to the reunion lots of people will be there, it’ll be so cool  to see so many old faces  together in the same room again, and I drop a couple of names find out my friends are all dead, I don’t know how that happened I don’t know why or how I’m still here.    She lists some people she knows are coming  and I wasn’t friends with them, I didn’t hang out with them at all,  they wouldn’t hang out with me back then I don’t know why I still know their names. I say yeah, that’s neat maybe I’ll come, I don’t know if anyone’ll even remember me can already feel the whispers burning into the back of my neck the insults I somehow managed to ignore, even when they were screamed accompanied with spitballs and rocks and violence after school I don’t know why I bother  answering the phone anymore. --Holly Day

My love/hate relationship with technology always manages to find "technology advisors" who continually use jargon to try to "help" neophyte users such as myself.  I ran across this little gem of advice today.  "While (jargon term)-ing a (jargon term), tap the (jargon term) to bring up the (jargon term) and the (jargon term). On the left hand side is a (jargon term). Make sure the (jargon term) is off. DISCLAIMER! Although tempted, no keyboards were harmed in the typing of this post! --Kent Hoffman