Public Republic

Simon Perchik Photo: jar() These sheep have no choice either though even in summer they still want to hear the truth just by staring back at the grass lifelike – it’s not for you they hold power here, let go nothing, not their fleece not these sleeves, face to face – you have no right […]

Simon Perchik Photo: jar() You still use rain, breathe in till your mouth is full -you can’t jump clear, grow huge on a sky that has no holes, no Earth -what did you say, what words were helped along, holding on to the others all the way down, facing the sun

Simon Perchik Photo: jar() This path so like the others doesn’t know where else to go and for each funeral you build another hallway in another mountain, the palaces filling with a great rockslide

Simon Perchik Photo: jar() The ground so slow to heal has yellowed though the camera injected a faint gloss calmed the family and friends still afraid to move the body -not too close! Your cheek could scare her off and the snapshot tree and all, left empty cared for by the sun alone can’t get […]

Michael Lee Johnson Photo: fazen Soft nursing 5 solid minutes of purr paws paddling like a kayak competitor against ripples of my 60 year old river rib cage- I feel like a nursing mother but I’m male and I have no nipples. Sometimes I feel afloat. Nikki is a little black skunk, kitten, suckles me […]

Donal Mahoney Photo: bsabarnowl Rogers Park, Chicago This brilliant winter morning finds waves of snow on every lawn and red graffiti dripping from the walls of Temple Mizpah once again as down the street stroll ancient men who every morning shuffle here for prayer.

Michael Lee Johnson Photo: weglet Gingerbread lady, no sugar or cinnamon spice; years ago arthritis and senility took their toll. Crippled mind moves in then out, like an old sexual adventure blurred in an imagination of fingertip thoughts. Who remembers the characters? There was George, her lover, near the bridge at the Chicago River: she […]

Michael Lee Johnson Photo: pareeerica Edith, in this nursing home blinded with macular degeneration, I come to you with your blurry eyes, crystal sharp mind, your countenance of grace- as yesterday’s winds I have chosen to consume you and take you away.

Michael Lee Johnson Photo: ToOliver2 A Métis Indian lady, drunk — hands blanketed as in prayer, over a large brown fruit basket naked of fruit, no vine, no vineyard inside — approaches the Edmonton, Alberta adoption agency. There are only spirit gods inside her empty purse.

Photo: striatic Today the weather will be nice… I’ll take off my shoes. I might cut my toenails… I like to cut my nails and also to scrape my heels. In general, I enjoy the pleasures life offers… I’m not one of those who believe in reincarnation, and when the weather’s nice, I don’t miss […]

Photo: vorty Once upon a time there was a fabulously beautiful bird. She lived in the dreams of the artists, poets and hunters. The artists tried to draw her their whole lives, but never succeeded in capturing her image. And the people said to them: -If you can’t draw her it means there is no […]