May — 2016 — The Monarch Review
ALMAGEST (an excerpt from the novel Najma) – Danny Sherrard
Thursday, May 26, 2016 12:18 — 0 Comments
I didn’t hear about the skeleton they found on the moon until three days after they found it, which is a little late to receive that kind of news. I was at the bar Almagest (where I get most my news anyway) and two people sitting down the counter were talking about it with an iPad in front of them. The closest one to me was saying that he thought it was a hoax to distract us from the fact that we’re at war. The further one down, who was bald, said, Maybe, but what if it is something else? I […]
Raft of Dead Monkeys and the Complete History of Seattle
Monday, May 23, 2016 13:10 — 0 Comments
On June 8 at 7 p.m., Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum will premier a documentary that could very well blow your mind. The film is called The Complete History of Seattle and, primarily, it revolves around a band called Raft of Dead Monkeys. With a title like The Complete History of Seattle, you might think it would be a boring historical summary of some people digging trenches, constructing a highway at some point, and some old white men claiming ownership over everything. While this isn’t what the movie is about, explicitly, it is maybe metaphorically about. Some young guys have started […]
Three Poems – Krys Malcolm Belc
Monday, May 23, 2016 13:06 — 1 Comment
seven and a half years in philly. for seven years now philadelphia drivers have been trying to kill me. at first i thought it was cause i was a queer. i would walk hand in hand with anna and they’d be born suddenly, bruised pontiacs, new cadillacs, jeeps, minivans, breathless metal missionaries. on 45th street i’d look helplessly into the coffee shop across from my apartment for a witness. everyone looked down. then i had a round-faced, solemn baby. drivers still had my number. he had my wife’s eyes and they still tried to mash him like potatoes. we left […]
Three Songs To The Head vol. 41
Saturday, May 14, 2016 12:19 — 0 Comments
Hello and welcome back to Three Songs to the Head where we share three songs that moved us, three songs we love, three songs we can’t get out of our heads! Today, we’re featuring King Khazm, Goodbye Heart and Mississippi Jones. Enjoy! The productive bleakness that leaps out of the new video for “Dear Diary” from Seattle rapper King Khazm is heart-wrenching and fresh. In this video, the artist doesn’t pull punches, doesn’t hide from the onlooking audience. Instead, images of suicide, a black shroud and Khazm’s frail, bare body in the dirt stir us. He delivers his lyrics with ferocity. In […]
The Alchemy of Haris Durrani’s Spiritual Sci-Fi – Ahsan Butt
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 14:45 — 1 Comment
A time-traveling conquistador, who is the devil, h(a)unts the eccentric uncle of a half-Dominican, half-Pakistani, American Muslim kid, “Joeâ€â€”real name, Jihad—who is left wondering what’s real and what’s halal in a cynical, post-9/11 New York. This hints at only some of what Haris A. Durrani is up to in his 116 page debut, Technologies of the Self. The story is structured around Uncle Tomas’ fragmented accounts of his confrontations with the devil—Santiago. As family members take turns sounding off about the credibility of the crass and incorrigible—old and lonely—Tomas, Joe’s own reality and memories begin to hum to Tomas’ frequency. […]
The Carpenter-Poet – Nate Brantingham
Monday, May 2, 2016 10:40 — 3 Comments
His hands are huge— tools and boards, sheetrock and girders have roughed his hands with thick calluses. He has built houses and refurbished stores. Half of Pike Place Market has seen his hands on the walls. Before it opens, he knocks on a roll-up door, muffling the smells of a bakery. The door opens barely a foot and a cinnamon roll appears. This man will return the next day as he has always done. Again he is told to come back tomorrow and the cycle continues. But those too-thick hands, I know they hold books during lunch break, some written […]
What am I?
Bioluminescent eye
That sees by the shine
Of its own light. Lies
Blind me. I am the seventh human sense
And my stepchild,
Consequence;
Scientists can't find me.
Januswise I make us men;
Glamour
Was my image then—
Remind me:
The awful fall up off all fours
From the forest
To the hours…
Tick, Tock: Divine me.
-- Richard Kenney