No. 27
No schism occurs without a few pangs and regrets, of course. The animals had heretical ideas, but sometimes they seemed herer than we were. Maybe it was because bits and bytes flew over their heads. Maybe the animals were only ever going to listen to someone who spoke in moons and stars. Of course we never would have stooped to that, pandering to wallabies and penguins, handing out stars like handing out candy. If only there had been some river that could have washed all that magic off, all that moonshine, without washing them away as well.
—Amy Leach
No. 27 • Mónica de la Torre
I would have fallen in love with him too had not so many others done so already.No. 27 • Amy Leach
Now that our intelligence, having accelerated for centuries, has almost attained unimpeachability, we are not taking it lightly.No. 27 • John L’Heureux
It was cruel, it was unspeakable, to allow innocence to mock itself this way.No. 27 • Ahmad Fа̄ris Shidyа̄q
The concept of civilization has acquired such popularity.No. 27 • Marilyn Hacker
Remember longing / when it was legitimate, / remember writing / in an emerging language.No. 27 • Reginald Gibbons
in dark / cold sleep, each branch a midnight / candelabrum of the cosmos.No. 27 • Karen An-hwei Lee
Once I told you, love is a partial /anagram of solvency. Dear millennium, please— / I owe you nothing.No. 27 • Mark Bibbins
Shoes of disappeared women / hovering in holes in wallsNo. 27 • Lily Brown
The horse gallops / fog under its chinNo. 27 • Daniel Borzutzky
The curtains were the color of red wine / The bedspread the color of sandNo. 27 • Ilya Kaminsky
Such is the silence / of a woman who speaks against silence.No. 27 • Eva Speer
History was mutable and distorted… Life had given him permission to play with it.No. 27 • LaToya Watkins
I always knowed I had some of my momma in me. All that hell. All that hardness.No. 27 • Deborah Taffa
They said never to trust an Indian who doesn’t want to go back to his own reservation.No. 27 • Bruna Dantas Lobato
There isn’t much to tell. Tell me anyway. Soothe this old heart.No. 27 • Annie Coggan
Of all Edith Wharton's characters, Lily Bart is most her author's architectural id.No. 27 • Ryūnosuke Akutagawa & Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
I’ve lost my taste for anything that isn’t made up.No. 27 • Nanos Valaoritis
How important to designate even the most unimportant occurrence: What is nameless cannot exist.Get A Public Space as you like it: the print magazine, the digital version, or a print and digital bundle. The best value? Subscribe to A Public Space and receive three new issues of the magazine as well as exclusive access to the online archive.