Publia Cantos III

August 1st, Anno Domini 2026

The bittered wines of ages past taste sweet to those with the tongue for it, and an old bitch gone in the teeth looks like Venus to those with the eyes for it. Fiume once again leads as an example for this Journal, voices of every type are all raised together from those with a tongue for it, hoping for those with eyes for it. 

Il Vate

Il Prosista

No living voice spoke, and thus the loudest of the past speaks from across Jordan.

Excerpt from The Flame
By D’Annunzio

He bent his brow which a thought was oppressing.

“You will rest by talking to Sophia at the window, and perhaps you will see the flocks passing again on their way from the plains to the mountains.”

The sun was nearing the gigantic acropolis of the Dolomites. The immense phalanx of clouds was disordered as if by a battle, shot through by numberless beaming arrows, and bathed in a marvelous blood-like crimson. The waters extended the great battle fought round the impregnable towers. The melody had melted into the shadow of the already distant islands. The whole estuary seemed mantled in gloomy warlike magnificence as if myriads of flags were bending over it, a silence that seemed only waiting for a flourish of imperial trumpets.

Softly, after a long pause, he said : —

“And if she were to question me about the fate of the virgin who reads the lamentation of Antigone ?”

The woman started.

“And if she were to question me about the love of the brother who searches the tombs?”

The phantom filled the woman with fear.

“And if the page on which she lays the blade of grass were the one where the trembling soul tells its desperate hidden fight against the horrible evil ?”

The woman could find no words in her sudden dismay. Both remained silent, gazing at the sharp peaks of the mountains in the distance, which shone as if they had only just emerged from primordial fire. The sight of that solitary, eternal grandeur brought a sense of strange fatality to their two souls and almost an uncertain terror, which they could neither conquer nor scrutinize. Venice was darkened by the masses of burning porphyries ; she lay on the waters all wrapped in a violet veil ; from it the marble pillars emerged, carved by man to guard the bells that give the signal for customary prayer. But the customary work and prayer of man, the old city tired with having lived too long, its mutilated marbles and its worn-out bells, — all those things oppressed by the weight of memories, and all perishable, become lowly in comparison with the tremendous inflamed Alps that lacerated the sky with their thousand inflexible points, themselves an enormous, solitary city, waiting perhaps for a young nation of Titans.

Il Profeta

That’s Up for Caesar to Figure Out
By Koresh

I understand where libertarians are coming from. When you start to see just how little accountability exists within government, and the blatant double standards that nobody seems willing to name, it starts to make sense. Bartenders in many states can be held criminally liable for a DUI. That idea isn’t bad in itself, but by that logic parole boards and judges should be held to the same standard. If anything they bear a hundred times more responsibility than a bartender. The asymmetry is so obvious it almost feels intentional.

But this isn’t really a modern problem, and that’s what makes it so difficult. What we’re dealing with has been developing without interruption since the founding of the country, and that unbroken continuity is precisely where it derives its legitimacy. Two centuries of law and politics intertwining, which is frankly inevitable, have produced what I can only describe as deadweight. Accumulated baggage with no obvious mechanism for removal.

A relevant example is the birthright citizenship ruling and its relationship to the 14th Amendment. The judges were correct. If the goal is to remain consistent with prior rulings and maintain internal coherence, they had no choice but to rule that the executive lacked jurisdiction over the matter. The problem is not that they ruled the wrong way. The problem is that ruling the right way and ruling the correct way are no longer the same thing. The system has drifted far enough from its original intentions that staying internally coherent now means producing outcomes nobody with common sense would defend.

This creates a psychological problem with no clean solution. To recognize that the rules are foolish and ought to be broken requires a particular kind of mind, one that can hold the system’s logic and the system’s failure in view simultaneously without flinching. Most people who have genuine respect for law and order are not prone to that kind of thinking. So instead we dress it up in originalism, in questions about the intention behind the 14th, in procedural arguments that allow us to arrive at a different conclusion without ever admitting we are simply overriding the letter of the law because the letter has become absurd.

The left has fewer problems with this. A spirit of improvisation runs through even its more moderate elements. They will construct justification after justification for behavior that is plainly outside the rules when it advances their aims, and they do not lose sleep over logical coherence because foundationalism was never the point. This is both a strength and a weakness. The strength is adaptability. The weakness is that without foundational commitments there is no directed aim, only a tug of war between moderates and fringes that produces chaos dressed up as progress.

The slowness of the system is not the solution either, despite what its defenders claim. Slowness only constrains those willing to stay under the speed limit. The people willing to exploit the system’s weaknesses are not slowed by its speed limits.

So what does a path forward look like? Burning it down wouldn’t work and wouldn’t produce good outcomes. Working within the system while pretending its foundations are sound is a comfortable fiction the last several decades have exposed thoroughly.

Honestly? That’s up for Caesar to figure out. In the meantime, build what you can. Get your money up. Get your connections up. The old answer is still the only one available while we wait.

Il Fabbro

 Today we're heading into the world of MirMarnia, from the wonderful mind of Chaiga T. Cheska. From colorful and dark forests, walking libraries, and mesmerizing fish floating where water and sky meet, MirMarnia is brought to life by the same hand that wrote it. Cheska is both the author and artist of this world, and what you see here is only a window into it.

Thank you for reading the third instalment, so far it has been a pleasure to work with so many talented Artists and Writers. Publia Cantos is new and small and intends to stay small enough to maintain our vitality, one good piece at a time. If something in this issue moved you, check out the artist who did the moving. If you have work, send it to us.

None of this exists without the writers and artists who trusted us with their work. Our gratitude to Jack Dumas, Chaiga T. Cheska and Koresh. Find more of their work at the links below.

Jack Dumas               https://substack.com/@therope
Chaiga T. Cheska    https://substack.com/@chaigatcheska
Koresh

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