Public Republic

Peycho Kanev Photo: Pink Sherbet Photography are dead and although I am still leaning towards this window can no longer hear their barking against the moon; the cats are sleeping on the red rug redder than a blooming rose, redder from your blood and I think of leaping bodies from the bridges of the world, […]

Roger Conner, Jr Photo: ComputerHotline Everyone wants to get home from work, because of the snow, you know? I left the store going slow, and coasted, it looked a bit dangerous, glistening crystals. The light was green to go, the right turn was home, but I went on. Straight through the light, I couldn’t stop, […]

Becca Books Photo: eXage The poor things! Every one with the cold of the world ‘round her shoulders ― and that’s not to mention the weight of the man, unless it’s the stab of his absence. Some come from ashes, some dust, some clay;                          but none is numb. I had a scar or two of […]

Elayne Clift Photo: Philms One day when our daughter was five years old she proudly proclaimed herself bi-lingual. “I speak English and American!” she boasted to friends. Now that I’m sixty-five, I’d like to express my own point of pride: I’ve survived three decades in a bi-cultural marriage. It hasn’t always been easy.

Bojidar Pangelov Photo: neofito With its death the day gilds                 the leaves. I know the names of                 the tree and it doesn’t matter for                 beauty. Translated from Bulgarian by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Maria Aladzhova’s interview with Huang Xiang and William Rock In this issue of Artist of the week Public Republic presents you Huang Xiang and William Rock – two incredible artists and creators of The Century Mountain Project. The Century Mountain Project is an East/West collaboration of art that creates a “visual dialogue across humanity.” Huang […]

Leatha Kendrick Photo: koalazymonkey Remember the milk (2% of the time I forget.) Remember              that Brown Swiss calf we brought              home in the back seat of Daddy’s old gray Dodge?

Donal Mahoney Photo: Marco Fedele To lie in bed this morning of a snow when neither of us has to go anywhere for hours at least. To sprawl and talk of what we hope for. Better, what we know the years will bring and contemplate just knowing we can see it all up there on […]

By Changming Yuan Photo: Richard0 if the little mouse became as boundless as the sky as it wishes the sky would become as free as a cloud the cloud as powerful as a wind and if the wind became as unshakable as a wall the wall would become as penetrating as a mouse and the […]

Peter Kraevski Photo: Robert Couse-Baker The torn-up wallpaper of propriety the savaged slippers of domesticity the loneliness with its unreeled balls of yarn this is the dog of my affection and the cat of yours

Corinna Ketterling Photo: David Blackwell. The dachshund, which she left with me drags me behind him through the snow we greet a snowmen and we see all winter’s white enchanting show

Mariana Velichkova Photo: krystynana I collected the remnants of my pride piece by piece I cleared up the shelves of my mind thought by thought I put away the matters of the heart that don’t matter anymore in a cold, dry, secret place to store along with useless souvenirs of fragile memories worn-out masks of […]

By Changming Yuan Photo: Muffet Arhats squatting around in a fast fading field all flushed with protests against frost coming simply too soon Buddha means you to guard an entire season but we mean you to guard our houses the last of an orange-streaked landscape the last to ripen

Keith Wilson Photo: Ghetu Daniel My metallic grey, this cold static hush across the frightened traffic of my forest. My unfamiliar family, my food, my quarry. I prey alone, head cocked to the side, an ear to the needles of the ground, and the other trained to heaven. I am the truest of predators. The […]

Molly Weinberg (this poem was written while she was in camp during World War II) Photo: Robbie W T Vitamins A, B, C Smooth life’s way for you and me, But if you’re really going far What you need is Vitamin R. Want some vegetables on the sly? Want the occasional refreshing milk? Want o […]

Chantal Bizzini Photo: The Pug Father Water battled light yet they played and the broken shells didn’t wound their feet the wall fell, wall of water on this bleached city, fortified with reefs and flats on the stink of algae mixed with torn boards, tires, corkscrews, gloves of discolored rubber, plastic debris, heaps of rope […]

By Changming Yuan Photo: Jeremy 白杰瑞 You do not speak that language Neither have you been to their country But within the territory of our English vocabulary You can easily find who they are: They enjoy playing mahjong in a casino They are afraid of typhoon They kowtow to show their respect

Therése Halscheid Photo: Kamen Ferdinandov Yesterday my father greeted me from another time ─ I was his sister, and the day before that I was his wife, tomorrow I might be his mother or Aunt Mamie

Kenneth Pobo Photo: Per Ola Wiberg (Powi) Boson, you transmit your force onto/ into me while the sky, seduced by green land formations and big-bellied mountains, tries to float away but can’t–I often crave your force,

By Changming Yuan Photo: tanakawho so, we have refastened the sword above your head with a digitalized net instead of a horse hair fear, the one you have been plagued by will never ruin your macdonald’s or dim sum, hanging like a candle good day, Democracy