This was a great week for submissions! Thanks to all of you for keeping an eye out for perfection.
There is too much evidence that the arc of the moral universe does not bend towards justice; powerful men can make their massacres seem necessary and righteous.
"The Shoah After Gaza", Pankaj Mishra for The London Review of Books
It bothers me that there is so little usable infrastructure beneath artists and so much baroque architecture built on top of us.
"A Body That's All Surface", Elisabeth Nicula for The Back Room
Elisabeth is a frequent writer of perfect sentences; this text was a balm.
I can't be destroyed through a computer I'm too outside
Submitted by Chris.
The muck pooling in the tunnel at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip had the consistency of a milkshake and, in some places, sat at least two feet deep.
"Elon Musk’s Vegas Tunnel Project Has Been Racking Up Safety Violations", Max Chafkin and Sarah McBride for Bloomberg
Look, we all enjoy a good laugh at Elon Musk-related fuckups, but I want to take a moment to appreciate the artistry of this lede. The authors could have cut to the chase and given a more perfunctory summary to open this article, but instead they wrote a sentence that could just as easily open a Harlan Ellison-flavored sci-fi noir. Absolutely delightful.
Looking at him, you’d never presume that this was the person who made candle purchasing a matter of financial insecurity.
"Dril is Everyone. More Specifically, He's a Guy Named Paul.", Nate Rogers for The Ringer
The room tone of the abyss comprises rasps, creaks, grunts, rhythmic patterns like crickets in fall, the creak of an old door repeatedly opening, two balloons rubbing against each other, voices through blown speakers, the shrill grind of a dentist's drill, the occasional raspberry.
The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, Brad Fox
Submitted by Suzanne with the comment "The room tone of the abyss!"
I hate myself, I hate clover and I hate bees.
Charles Darwin in a letter to John Lubbock, 1862
Via Ruth's Instagram Stories.
The weather isn’t looking good, time’s running out, a bright shrapnel of light falls whitely on the birch.
"In Time", Olivia Laing for Frieze
Via M. John Harrison on Bluesky.
Whether the orientalism renders the objectified as infantile, monstrous, exotic or what have you, what matters for all these texts is that there is a distinct flavour of that place, something like a spice, that can be taken out of it, mixed into a dish, a taste that the discerning reader can pick up, perhaps even become expert at picking up.
"The Extractivism of Setting and the Traitor's Text", Vajra Chandrasekera
Submitted by Nathan.
I would prefer for my poems to not also be threats.
"Language models can only write ransom notes", Allison Parrish
Submitted by Kit.