Public Republic

Changming Yuan Photo: blmurch (for Liu Yu and other mothers) A line this is for my mother’s birthday A birth line for my mother’s day A mother for the birthday of a line A celebration of my mother’s line of birth Mother, I will line your birth with celebration I will day a line with […]

Dimana Ivanova Photo: LaPrimaDonna “And I saw a New sky and a New land, which were governed by truth!” “Revelation” by Ioan Bogoslov She called from America and said: “I conceived my child alone!” From the air, still wet in space, caught by the ocean’s breath, the wind through which you sent me kisses, songs, […]

Milena Valkanova Photo: akshay moon Mom, there are times when your hand in mine feels like throbbing of a thousand lives together. We are the unsundered chain of blood meandering within the riverbeds where our great grandmothers threw their daughters like bread on the water. Now is a time to let your mother walk on […]

Linda Cruise Photo: tonythemisfit The idea that such a beautiful day could morph into the darkest one of my life is inescapable to me, now. So, too, is the irony of my mother’s inherent nature to never jaywalk not being enough to shield her from a most-violent death, in the painted crosswalk of an idyllic, […]

Cristina Trapani-Scott Photo: powi He was tall on Sundays, his white shirt crisp, his hazel eyes shaded by the patio awning. Heat from the grill gave his stillness movement, making him a reflection on water cut

Marilyn Kallet Photo: Choufi/// Today the Garonne flows greener than the poplars, more limber, sky is smoke pierced with light, gulls make dazzling punctuation marks like childhood on Jones Beach.

Zlatko Enev The Meadow with Three Exits Photo: 8078381@N03 Read Ghost Forest – Introduction Thump! Anne tumbled down hard onto the ground. Luckily, she had landed on a soft patch otherwise she would have been badly hurt. Still dizzy from her wild flight, she lay there a while before sitting up and taking a fearful […]

Daniela Gakeva-Slavcheva Photo: Môsieur J. * * * Събудих се. Още един ден. Жалко. I woke up. Another day. Too bad.

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.

Zlatko Enev Photo: gemsling The River in the Box Somewhere on the outskirts of town there was a small cottage surrounded by a large garden. A girl with bright red hair lived there with her mother. Her father, who she used to visit from time to time in a far off town, had left a […]

Barbara Sabol Photo: nathalielaure Mothers forget to mind the heavens and miss when daughters smuggle stars into the house under white cotton blouses, mistaking their shine for filigree

Kerana Angelova Photo: mysza831 Introduction She was laden with years like an old quince tree. Though the fruit had already been picked, the tree in its mind continued to carry its load and lacked the strength to straighten its branches. It’s time, old woman Pignyo said to herself. Once, in the evening, something had cheeped […]

Russ Kesler Photo: striatic He wondered what he’d been thinking. He’d never liked tacos—just steak, a potato drowning in butter.

Matthew Vetter Photo: littledan77 It is easy to find you, because you want to be found. You hide in the same place every time:

Barbara Sabol Photo: Auntie P I found them afterwards, clearing out her dresser drawers. Folded, still in tissue that had yellowed but held its crease, nearly sleek as its forgotten contents. Tissue fluttered open as I lifted them like lost parcels unwrapped, fragile.

Russ Kesler Photo: h.koppdelaney Dear all, just wanted you to know I’ve arrived. I don’t remember much about the journey except that it was pleasant. A woman I traveled with said she hoped to find her husband. I haven’t seen her since, but all the folks I’ve met have been real nice. It’s quiet here—no […]