Evergreen

Daphne and Stu stood at the picture window overlooking the front yard of their mother’s home, talking quietly. 

“I don’t know,” said Daphne, “something’s not right with Mom.” 

Together they peered out the window at Mildred, who was busily watering her vast garden. “How do you mean?” asked Stu. 

“She talks to her plants,” whispered Daphne. When Stu gazed at her skeptically, she said, “Really. She even has names for them.” 

Stu laughed unconvincingly. But when his sister didn’t share the humor, he grew concerned. “Well, Mom’s always been a little edgy, Sis.” 

“No,” she disagreed. “That doesn’t even begin to describe it, Stu.” 

“What would describe it, then?” he asked. 

“Try bat-shit crazy,” suggested Daphne. 

Out into the garden they walked, stopping behind Mildred at a safe distance, observing. 

“Ooh,” said Mildred, upending a watering can over a peony. “There, that’s good, take a long drink.” Mildred tittered. 

Daphne and Stu exchanged a glance, looked back at their mother, who moved onto an azalea bush. “You take a drink too, Bob.” 

Stu nudged his sister, whispered the word, “Bob?” 

Daphne made a twirling motion with a forefinger next to her head. 

“Mom,” said Stu quietly, “come on into lunch.” 

Mildred shook her head. “Nope. I’ve got to feed my babies.” 

“Babies?” he asked. 

“Of course,” replied Mildred, taking up a huge bottle of liquid fertilizer. Dipping an eye dropper into the bottle, she began dispensing plant food, drop by drop, onto individual blades of grass. 

“Mom, lunch is ready. How long do you expect this to take?” asked Stu worriedly? 

“Well, the last time I counted,” said Mildred, “there were more than 400,000 blades of grass.” She began humming a merry tune. 

“Mom,” said Daphne, stepping across the lawn and reaching for her mother. 

“You’re crushing them!” shrilled Mildred in horror. “Get off, get off!” 

Daphne leaped back onto the pavement. 

“Ooh,” wailed Mildred. “You hurt Aaron!” 

“Who’s Aaron?” asked Stu? 

“The dandelion,” replied Mildred, cosseting the bent weed in her age-spotted hands. 

Stu made a pained face at Daphne, who rolled her eyes. “I told you so,” she mouthed silently.  

The next day Stu called Mildred’s doctor with what they observed.  Dr. Zeel thought they were overly alarmed, but agreed to have Mildred in the next week.  

Dr. Zeel told Mildred at their appointment why her children were concerned. Mildred laughed and told the doctor “Oh, that’s just a game I play to keep myself amused. I know the plants don’t listen to me. I’ll try to be more discreet around the kids.” The doctor did some tests and told Mildred everything looked good and not to worry. 

 After she got home Mildred called her children and scolded them. “You shouldn’t have gotten my doctor involved,” she said. My plants won’t like you after I tell them what you did.”  

Daphne and Stu were more concerned than ever about Mildred, but couldn’t think of what to do next. Mildred wouldn’t speak to them.  

In the following weeks Mildred’s children had to rethink Mildred’s relationship with her garden. A three hundred foot redwood which didn’t grow within seven hundred miles sprang up overnight in Stu’s backyard. Dandelions broke through Daphne’s sidewalk and driveway, fracturing the concrete. Other mysterious botanical phenomena occurred throughout the world. 

 Even Mildred did not know that her plants talked to other plants.  Fruit trees refused to grow fruit, wheat and other plants that normally provided the staff of life did not cooperate as well.  While sympathetic with the plants, Mildred recognized that she had to prevent a global catastrophe. She convinced her children to apologize to her plants so they could pass along the forgiveness to humans.  

Stu and Daphne felt really stupid, but based on the gravity of the situation, they knew they had to do it. With Mildred helping to prepare their remarks, her children addressed the plants in the garden.  

“Plants in Mildred’s garden, we were foolish,” muttered Stu. 

“We didn’t consider your feelings. We were wrong in thinking that you didn’t really understand what Mildred was saying,” added Daphne. 

Stu added: “We know plants have rights too.” 

In tandem they murmured, “We beg your forgiveness and hope that you can convince the other plants that humans depend on to provide food for them again.” 

 Mildred has listened in.  When Daphne and Stu were done, Mildred bent to the ground, then rose up and told them how her plants answered. “They will do what you want under one condition.” 

 Stu and Daphne answered in unison “Whatever they want. We’re good for it.”  

Mildred assured them, “Oh, it’s easy and I’ll do it. All they ask for is a double ration of the fertilizer treat I give them.” 

 Stu asked “It’s that easy? Can you start now?” 

 “I’m on it in the next five minutes. It’s a good thing I stocked up on their treat.” 

 Good to their “word” Mildred’s plants passed on the kids’ apology and worldwide, the plants returned to their normal behavior. 

 Four prosperous years passed before food crops went on strike again, protesting overcrowding, abrasive weed killers and that pesky hedge trimmer thing. 

How Social Media Affects Young People

Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine life without social media. They have become an integral part of our lives: some people use them to stay informed about the news, others to communicate with friends, and some to gain knowledge. Especially among young people, the role of social media is enormous.

However, their impact can vary from person to person — for some, they bring benefits, while for others, they become a reason for wasting time. For me personally, social media brings more benefits. Because I try to use them properly.

For example, through the “Ibrat Farzandlari” app, I do various exercises to learn German, English, and other foreign languages. This app helps me improve my vocabulary and make my speech more fluent. In addition, through the “Mutolaa” app, I read new books and stories every day. Such platforms awaken in me a love for reading and an interest in books.

However, unfortunately, not all my peers use social media correctly. Some spend most of their time watching useless or even harmful content. This reduces their attention to studying and negatively affects their mood. Some, on the other hand, become too immersed in the virtual world and gradually distance themselves from real-life relationships. In my opinion, the problem is not in social media itself, but in us, the youth.

Because we are the ones who choose how to use them. If we use them to gain knowledge, learn languages, and stay informed about new events, they will be useful. On the contrary, if we use them to waste time, compare ourselves with others, or follow meaningless posts, they will harm us.

Social media, in fact, is a great opportunity for young people to expand their thinking, express themselves, and work on self-improvement. The important thing is to know how to use them in the right way. In conclusion, social media can be both useful and harmful — it depends on how we use them. I believe that every young person should learn to use social media in a way that brings benefit. Because every opportunity gives a real result only when it is used correctly.

The Coming

(+)

The coming

cut of transference

is already

here

(+)

start of fire

stiff of smoke

to buy and sell

and pay bills

(+)

color code

on our skin of sin

feel of ash

between fingertips

(+)

I’m on the roof

before the flood of ink

taking a nap

above the streets

(+)

fake

sacrifice

I’m poor

and needy

(+)

my eyes

opening

veins

and slowly closing

(+)

my blood see through

character

soft sun of shadows

before the storm

(+)

loaded pistol beside me

ready to dream

for the great cause

but probably with little effect

(+)

my cell phone expanding

way of the world

six six six

near to overtaking all

(+)

saying no to the mark

of the coming beast

will save your soul

if you know the Word.

Dr. Antonello Turco’s Holistic Method Is Art and Culture

From Italy, having spread to other European countries, Dr. Antonello Turco’s holistic method has arrived in the USA. 

It is a method for physical and mental health that, especially, has a direct and tangible connection to art.

It is certainly a cutting-edge method for physical and mental health.

I have known Dr. Turco for a year, and our relationship has become increasingly interesting and intense, as it encompasses aspects of both the physical and spiritual, but above all, always related to creativity and art.

Now, if extreme attention to appearance was once exclusive to our world of celebrities, this aspect has extended to everyone in the space of about fifty years, albeit with some discrepancies resolved precisely by Dr. Antonello Turco’s holistic method.

Dr. Turco began with a degree in Nutrition and Sports Sciences, followed by years of experience in fitness and coaching, daily developing a method that places creativity and art at its core.

For those in the celebrity world, everything is geared toward serving the audience , and therefore, the more one’s health, physical appearance, and ability to constantly optimize one’s persona improve, the more fame, one thinks it increases.

Generally, this process is often at the expense of one’s private life, since for those in show business, the priority belongs to public life, not private life.

One of the reasons for Dr. Turco’s growing success is precisely that he “gives” everyone the full range of elements that can generate optimal physical health, including excellent physical appearance.

Despite this, Dr. Turco is often in Malibu and Hollywood, and global stars flock to seek his advice.

The really interesting aspect is that the “Dr. Turco Method” is constantly evolving and therefore we will talk about it again since it is becoming a cultural and artistic motif in itself.

Nepantla, The Tipping Point, Deep Time: A Conversation Between Worlds

By Kandy Fontaine

In an exclusive interview I conducted last year with Weird Fiction master and vertebrate paleontologist Caitlín R. Kiernan, she spoke with haunting clarity about the concept of Deep Time:

“Human history is nothing more than a thin film floating atop the abyss of geologic time… Lovecraft’s god things… creatures that had ‘filtered down from the stars when earth was young.’ … Gothic literature where the phantoms do not haunt castles merely ancient by human standards, but by the standards of the cosmos.”

Kiernan’s words do more than illuminate a literary device—they expose a rupture in perception. Deep Time is not simply a scientific framework; it is a psychic terrain, a confrontation with scale so vast it destabilizes the ego. It is the abyss beneath our myths, our politics, our identities. It is the stage on which cosmic horror unfolds, but also the backdrop against which our most intimate transformations occur.

We are not merely living in historical time. We are drifting in Deep Time, where the boundaries of self and species blur, where the past is not behind us but beneath us, pressing upward through the thin crust of human memory.

The Tipping Point

We are at a tipping point in planetary history. The forces of what Hunter S. Thompson called “old and evil” have rebelled against the inevitable progress that comes with mutation and sudden shifts in consciousness. These forces are not abstract—they are embodied in regimes, in cultural gatekeepers, in the machinery of repression that clings to outdated notions of power, gender, and identity.

As a transfemme author, I have had to negotiate multiple spaces—some of which rejected me outright, others that claimed radicality but recoiled when I didn’t fit their aesthetic mold. The question isn’t whether I’m “better” than those gatekeepers. If Caitlín R. Kiernan—a writer of staggering intellect and vision—entrusted me to curate a literary tribute to her work, the answer is already clear.

What strikes me most about the current despotic regime that has nested itself in the White House is not just its corruption, but its fear. Fear of mutation. Fear of multiplicity. Fear of people like me and Kiernan, who embody a future they cannot control. They cling to an ignoble and outdated concept of masculinity while covering up for systemic abuse and moral rot. These things are not separate issues. They are symptoms of a deeper refusal to evolve.

Imaginary Crimes and the Politics of Projection

Among the most risible accusations leveled against Caitlín R. Kiernan are claims that she is a white supremacist and a transphobe. These are not critiques—they are projections, often made by individuals who have not engaged with her work, her life, or her legacy in any meaningful way.

Kiernan is a transfeminine author whose fiction has consistently challenged normative boundaries of gender, species, and time. Her protagonists are often liminal beings—neither fully human nor fully alien, neither male nor female, but something else entirely. Her work is not just inclusive; it is expansive, offering readers a vision of consciousness that transcends binary thinking.

To accuse Kiernan of transphobia is to ignore the lived reality of her identity and the radical empathy embedded in her narratives. To accuse her of white supremacy is to flatten the complexity of her Southern Gothic heritage, her critique of American mythologies, and her deep engagement with the monstrous as metaphor.

These accusations are not just false—they are symptomatic of a cultural moment in which nuance is sacrificed for outrage, and where the politics of purity often mask deeper insecurities. They are part of a broader pattern of imaginary crimes, invented to discredit voices that refuse to conform to the aesthetic or ideological expectations of the moment.

Kiernan’s work is difficult. It is unsettling. It does not offer easy answers or moral clarity. But that is precisely its power. It invites us into nepantla—the space between worlds—where transformation is possible, but never comfortable.

Nepantla: Walking Between Worlds

What many critics lack—especially those who’ve passionately excoriated Kiernan for imaginary crimes—is a nuanced understanding of nepantla, a Nahuatl term popularized by Gloria Anzaldúa. Nepantla is the space between worlds, the liminal zone where transformation occurs. It is not a place of comfort. It is a place of friction, of contradiction, of becoming.

To live in nepantla is to be a walker between worlds. It is to inhabit the gulfs of Deep Time while navigating the immediacy of cultural violence. It is to be trans, bi, straight, neurodivergent, nonbinary—not as fixed categories, but as fluid rotations on an axis. This is not chaos. It is rhizomatic, as Deleuze and Guattari described in A Thousand Plateaus—a network of overlapping consciousness, not a hierarchy.

Sexual identity, gender, and orientation are not static. They are dynamic systems, evolving in response to pressure, trauma, joy, and revelation. We are not fixed points. We are constellations.

Beyond Speciesism

To walk in Deep Time is to recognize that speciesism—the belief in human supremacy—is a delusion. We are not above the plants, the fungi, the microbial intelligences. We are among them. Our pleasure, our delight, our grief—they are not uniquely human. They are part of a larger ecology of being.

We must evolve. We must embrace mutation. We must see ourselves not as rulers of the earth, but as beings in Deep Time, destined to be recycled, reimagined, and reborn. This is not a metaphor. It is a biological and spiritual imperative.

Let us explore the manifold species of pleasure and delight. Let us decenter ourselves in the fullness of being aware that consciousness is multiple and overlapping. Let us maintain our grip on logic, even as we dissolve the boundaries of identity. Let us walk between worlds—not as exiles, but as architects of the future.

This is the work. This is the walk. Between worlds, across gulfs of time, toward a future that is not merely inclusive—but expansive. 

About Kandy Fontaine: Kandy Fontaine is the transfemme alter ego of author Alex S. Johnson, first manifest in the story “The Clown Dies at the End,” published in truncated form in 2015 in Imperial Youth Review. Their short stories, poetry and essays extensively explore liminal states. Forthcoming from Fontaine/Johnson as of this writing is the first issue of Black Diadem: Magazine of the Fantastique, which reproduces the Kiernan interview in full alongside “Ballad of a Catamite Revolver,” a story written by Kiernan for her Sirenia newsletter. Next year Fontaine helms The Language of Ruins: A Literary Tribute to Caitlin R. Kiernan, at her request. 

The Color Purple

I choose a rich purple shade

bearing a substantive connection to my ancestry

the African deities who gave birth to our humanity!

it is said to evoke visions of nobility, royalty, wisdom

creativity, spirituality, mystery  magicality

a colorful synthesis of soothing blue and spirited red!

becking forth recollections of powerful deities 

it’s paler shades suggest romantic allusions

and a state of peaceful composure

while its darker shades  shift

to suggest a state of dejection and spiritual elevation

its rich darker shade signify wealth luxury grandeur  power

but it is double sided in that it can betoken  melancholy 

and frustration when applied superfluously 

I suspect for some men it can denote

some feminine qualities… rightfully regulating

the dominant notions of masculinity

while its violet shade can symbolize passion, ambition

creativity and mourning in some aspects of cultural identity

it can accentuates one’s individuality in a crowd

replete with antiquated notions of conformity 

its blending of red and blue can birth

deliberate intrinsic serenity and stability

it is a celebrated historical scarcity

purple pigment extracted from seal mollusks

enhanced its costly rarity attainable only to the aristocracy…

But now the color purple has been reclaimed

and integrated into our everyday commonality

and individuality attainable to anyone who

deems themselves fit for royalty!–

Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at:  http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.-