About
About 21 21 is a multilingual literary magazine. 21 is a platform for translators and writers from Europe and beyond. 21 aims to make the best contemporary writing available in as many languages as possible. 21 is a joint project of several European institutions and universities. 21 can be reached...
Hero Space
The space where I am a hero. I am my own savior. I am the knight in shining armor. I am free. I am strong. I am bold, courageous, daring, and brilliant. For in it, in that space, I cannot be contained. In that space lies my most powerful self....
Beer cans
I was walking past a sports field with my mother. ‘Look,’ she pointed, ‘pretty, isn’t it’. The side of the path was littered with beer cans, all of them green. There were so many of them that it wasn’t an ugly sea of litter, but more like a mosaic of...
The Forces of Nature
I’m climbing a wall. It’s a waste of my time and energy; it would be a lot easier to just lower the wall and step over it. But it’s not like that in my world. I’ve got to go up against the forces of nature. ...
He Has Grown Taller Than Me
Beginning to cycle faster, and feel the wind rushing against my skin and through my hair. The noise of the cars grows softer. Whenever I travel down this small street, it feels as though the colour of the sky changes, and the air tastes different. As though I’ve entered into...
So?
‘So…,’ I asked my husband, ‘have you got round to loving me yet?’ My husband was watching the football. They scored. With an excited ‘Yeeesss!’ in my ear, I walked back to my room in...
Why?!!
A head that has been chopped off, looks as if – for a split second at least – it knows that it has been chopped off. A sad thought to have as your last one:...
Voyager
Nestled beneath the heat shields of Voyager I is a microscopic piece of ice. It is the only water that has not yet evaporated, faded away or simply blown from the ship in the fifty-three...
Spring Blossom
It is Springtime. The water spider in the river looks toward the five silhouettes on the river bank. From time to time, these silhouettes flow into each other; a leg vanishing into a knee, an...
A Contract Between Man and Boy
Parties to this agreement namely I hereinafter referred to as the boy my rapist hereinafter referred to as the man actions of this agreement namely indecent assault hereinafter referred to as the assault location of the agreement namely a landscape in France with views of Mont Saint-Michel hereinafter referred to as the playing...
Burial Barbie
It’s unclear whether Barbie is a cool, older sister or a mother. Because Barbie can be anything she wants to be: a stewardess, an astronaut, the president, a bride. You can buy Barbies in a...
The Reward
I didn’t need anyone to comfort me. Skidmark didn’t need any help, Bunny could look after himself perfectly well. Out of nowhere came shrieking voices that ridiculed me: how weak, how soft, how fragile, how...
Poet Without a Pen
I am writing in your eyes As I listen to you As you laugh I sigh my poem Between the gaps in the day While carrying the laundry basket I stop at rhyme-words Folding your blanket Beneath the corners of the...
You At The Very Center
You might not know this, but a human body falls unnaturally fast when dropped from a great height. Faster than any could move at an intentional pace. So fast that it’s actually pretty hard to...
The emotional dance
Pure happiness, or rather, an electricity that Explodes, takes flight, spills out From an unknown place into the deep Between the spirit and the heart It isn’t just a simple sequence of different movements, But a power that unites mind...