2011 — The Monarch Review — Page 7
INTERVIEW WITH PONTIUS PILATE – David James
Thursday, August 18, 2011 17:07 — 0 Comments
How could anyone have known he was the real deal?
Hip Hop is Dead(ly)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:57 — 0 Comments
Jay-Z and Kanye West’s new record Watch The Throne went to number one in twenty-three different countries in its first week of release. Anyone still wondering if hip-hop needs a hearse should get a job at Kinkos. At the top, the best MC’s are all swag and chopped Maybach, bitches in the back seat happy to be nothing more. The American Id has found its ride, and there’s no shortage of pavement. I’ll leave the socio-political critiques for those on better terms with eternity. On the home front, the coach is a bit more humble, but the road is laid […]
Artist Work Statement – Douglas Collura
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 11:00 — 0 Comments
We crowded classroom of kids. We snap rubber bands and bra straps. Hurl wads of chewed paper. Get punished into hallways. Other heads lie on desks, sleep or wipe noses on wood. Conversations rumble and run. Snuck book in my lap. Steady lines, fetal beat. The teacher’s hair wrapped and tucked under itself like a bath towel. My eyes try to lift her skirt that clings to freckles above the knee. She says, “I have a vocabulary question. Anyone?†I wave my arm. “Somebody else for a change,†she says. The others slide their desks behind mine, until my head […]
Cabbie Tells All – Craven Rock
Monday, August 15, 2011 0:22 — 2 Comments
“Did Jerry Springer call you? I gave them your number,†my buddy Herman asked me. Herman had just gone on the trashy talk show for a segment called I’m Leaving My Family For a Stripper with a dancer that he drives home in his taxi. The whole thing was fabricated: even his “family†didn’t exist. His baby momma was someone else he knew from taxiing around Louisville’s nightlife. Herman has serendipity when it comes to acting and appearing in weird shit. His booming voice can be heard in the B movie Sick Perverts, as a DJ announcing the apocalypse. He […]
Gush – Amy Gerstler
Thursday, August 11, 2011 12:55 — 0 Comments
Grinning while pretending to glance
The N Word: Engagement Toward Understanding – Evan Flory-Barnes
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 13:46 — 0 Comments
In light of recent violence over seas (not to mention continued violence here in the States)—further examples of sad economic and cultural conflict—I wanted to write about something I have always wanted to express: my thoughts on the N word. Whether you say it nigga or nigger, the N word is likely the most emotionally loaded word in the collective American psyche. The word brings up all kinds of feelings within people. I, myself, have experienced anger, confusion, laughter, sadness and comfort when hearing this word. The N word can be a stamp of inhumanity on another human being and […]
Four-Ten – Ryan Collins
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 13:44 — 8 Comments
The shotgun was heavy in the boy’s hands. The pigeons in the upstairs loft stared down at him, their little white faces scrunched up against the chicken wire. The boy held his breath as he sighted down the barrel. The hawk flipped and fluttered, knocking against the tin ceiling of the barn. The pigeons shuffled, pressing harder against the chicken wire that opened from the fly pen to the inside of the barn.
Just Once Before I Go – James Brantingham
Monday, August 8, 2011 12:23 — 1 Comment
Just once more before I go
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
