Public Republic

Jason Williams Photo: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com In the plastic cup-holder between Paul and his wife, the cell phone shudders awake. Abby flips aside the church bulletin and plucks the phone from the center console. The glowing, smudged screen reflects in her glasses. “Says it’s Chris. From work?” God damn it, he thinks. Sunday morning. Eleven […]

Whitney Groves Photo: erix! As she rode down the highway at sixty miles an hour, Darla had no trouble believing that she was riding on air. Every time she opened her eyes to check, she was a little surprised to find herself in the back seat of Donny’s Delta 88. Mostly, she kept her eyes […]

Cheryl Snell Photo: pixle I’m trimming my sister’s hair when Mother makes for the scissors. I’m the one, she begins. Her words sputter to a halt as I close the gaping blades. She stands, dwarfed in the kitchen she once ruled, and I see her as she was, bending low over the children’s curls, her […]

Linda Cruise Photo: tanakawho Read Part I The following week, both women—having surrendered control—arrive at the hospital, just as their appointment cards foretold. They’re processed through registration, one form after another, until they reach pre-op and are handed an obligatory gown. Their IVs are started, their wedding bands removed, and they’re obliged to sign the […]

Linda Cruise Photo: Fabien F “There’s the culprit,” says Doctor Wong. “It’s a rather large tumor on your left ovary, measuring ten centimeters in diameter—about the size of an orange.”

M. J. Iuppa Photo: sa_ku_ra I set my desire in a cup and the cup into the sink full of suds, and it sinks to the bottom unseen, with mismatched plates and serrated knives coated in butter and crumbs left to soak. . .

Jill Kelly Koren Photo: angela7dreams Today we locked my grandpa out of the house To keep him from bothering my mother about The cookies baking; it made me feel a louse To tell a grown man to get out, go out With Paul, your son, out working on the farm.

Roza Boyanova Photo: lepiaf.geo           in my son’s bed. An afternoon nap in my father’s worn smooth sandals I walk      on the keys           of wonderment. Translated from Bulgarian by Valentin Krustev

Violeta Boncheva Photo: PUPIL_BCN The Gypsy and the horse Are hauling the kernel of life uphill, hoofs pounding on the precipitous rocks, As the Gypsy is cursing at just about anything that flitters on the face of this earth, and the whip is cracking. Not spared is even his mother, Who flashes her teeth, all […]

David Snell Photo: A. www.viajar24h.com “Ronnie Lee?” Mentally, the boy winced at the name his mother still called him. He was 17, after all. He’d told his mother and father and sister and any one else who’d listen that he was now “Ron.” It was cool and simple, not buttoned-down like “Ronald,” his given name.

Robert Foshee Photo: *Paddy* It was an exceptionally lovely outhouse. Half the time Lettie spent there was just for the view. Sitting, you looked out a window on either side. The woods were full of birdsong and dappled ground, trees cut by streaks of sunlight so distinct they scratched the air. The tips of the […]

Photo: toniblay My first memory is of falling down. One minute, I was running across my grandmother’s driveway, staring down at my new shoes. With their red uppers, sunshine yellow tongue, and bright blue laces, they were perfection in primary colors. That moment, I was the wind and my feet were a rainbow. The next […]