I dreamed and found you young again somehow transported across the Atlantic, past Gibraltar then Corsica, over the waves of the Mediterranean. I arrived quite dashing in a light linen suit and polished Italian shoes, in a little white sportscar, over ancient brick streets and through Di Chirico piazzas and skewed Zeffirelli perspectives at your flat in Rome set curiously in the forum at the edge of the Palatine Hill. I took you in my arms, circled your waist, and my palm found the small of your back.
You twirled for me, flipping the hem of your dress, a black and white print in tiny cubist abstractions. We danced spinning through your bright rooms with the high ceilings like a chiesa expecting Raphael above our heads – an Assumption or an Ascension. You’d arranged vases of flowers, and the tables and chairs were strewn with opened books, chipped china, and the remains of bread and the dregs of wine from the night before. The windows were tall and opened wide, curtains drifting in the breeze, and allowed the shouts and cheers of scruffy boys kicking a soccer ball outside. And there was a jumpy, comedic Italian tune playing from the phonograph – the kind of music that makes you want to whirl around the kitchen with your mother or gambol with your little sister balanced on your shoes.
So pretty and poised, you were Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday after she got her hair cut short, raced Gregory Peck on a Vespa, and stuck her hand in the Mouth of Truth. Giddy, we laughed and ached and wept, immediately in love again. Your bedroom walls and the quaint watercolors you bought of the Pantheon, Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and that little temple of Portunus near the Tiber – the very ruins around us seemed to laugh too, happy for us. But when I leaned in to kiss you, our lips refused to touch, to meet as willing participants in a prelude to desire. I heard, “Remember, you’re married.” Instantly I returned flying back across the ocean in my little white convertible to that other bliss I’d live after waking. And that was all. That was enough.
Christopher Bernard will be reading at the Poets for Palestine SF Marathon Reading at Bird and Beckett Bookstore. For a donation of any amount to the Middle East Children’s Alliance, poets can come and read at any time at the store on October 14th, Indigenous People’s Day. Please feel welcome to sign up here or email poetsforpalestinesf@gmail.com to be scheduled.
A Day in October
A child holds his breath
like a frightened pet to his chest.
*
His eye peers through a hole
in the wall of his night room,
in the acid dust of siege
and cage of bone and blood,
in the code of an algorithm
governing AI
that has made the ineluctable
decision he shall die.
*
His eye, brown as honey,
watches you, intently.
*
It is like the eye in a castle wall
where hungry defenders await the burning
arrow vaulting through a sky
dark as velvet,
to break a mother’s shield
and wipe her tears with ashes
*
and build in pillars of fire
a school where future terrorists
(according to the omniscient
and infallible AI),
are learning, even now, their alphabet.
*
_____
Christopher Bernard is an award-winning poet, novelist, and essayist. His book The Socialist’s Garden of Verses won a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 2021 and was named one of 2021’s “Top 100 Indie Books.”
Azerbaeva Perizat Bayrambay qizi- a student of school number 49
Annotation- this article discusses about the shortage of water, along with its repercussions and methods to prevent it.
Keywords – natural resource, environment, new technologies, water shortage, drip irrigation.
Water is the source of life, because there is no life without water. Water is life, which has had an incomparable influence on the evolution of livelihoods, environment, and climate changes for millions of years. It should be noted that the demand and need for water is increasing more than ever. As a result, there is a water shortage all over the world.
Water is:
: composition of 55-65% (up to 80% in children) of the human body
: one of the most used and diminishing resources on our planet
: One of the factors that cause interstate threats and wars in the 21st century
: although it covers more than 70% of the land, only 3% of it is suitable for drinking.
: one of the causes of climate migration and the increase of immigrants around the world
A person without water can live up to 1 week at most. In 2023, 2 billion people, that is, a quarter of the world’s population, will be without clean drinking water, and in the next 10 years, 700 million people, that is, we will join them [1]. So, as written above, the topic is relevant, it needs to be written and read!
“It is necessary to form a collective understanding about the economical use of water. In order not to provoke an environmental virus that leads to economic and political pathology,” said Bori Olikhanov, chairman of the Committee on Development of the Aral Bay Region of the Oliy Majlis.¾ of the world is water. Can’t we turn it into drinking water? Yes, but this is a very expensive process.
According to the standards of the World Health Organization, one person needs 50-100 liters of water per day. In rural areas of Africa, a person consumes 10-20 liters of water per day, which is significantly lower than usual. Saudi Arabia is the leading country in drinking water consumption (500 liters of water per person per day) [1].
The main part of fresh water, i.e. 40%, is groundwater. Extracting them is, firstly, expensive, secondly, labor-intensive, and thirdly, a temporary solution that runs out and eventually dries up underground wells and leads to a water crisis.Although rivers and dams are important for water supply, they only contain about 1% of fresh water. alternating with snow.Fresh water extraction from icebergs and glaciers is also discussed. But it is not known what consequences such projects will have on the ecology of our planet, apart from the fact that it is not technically feasible at the moment.According to experts’ calculations, by 2050, water resources are expected to decrease by 5% in the Sirdarya basin and 15% in the Amudarya basin [2], and the demand for water will increase by 50%. Today, about 2 billion people on earth need clean drinking water, and more than 2 billion 300 million people are forced to consume food that does not meet sanitary requirements.
On February 8 of this year, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting on improving drinking water supply in the regions. The main focus was on providing the population with clean drinking water.After the order of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on December 27, 2018, “On urgent measures to create favorable conditions for the widespread use of drip irrigation technology in the cultivation of cotton raw materials”, positive projects will be implemented to prevent water wastage. started [3].The water-related problems of the Central Asian countries were discussed in Tashkent: on January 18, a roundtable discussion was held in the capital of Uzbekistan on the topic “Problems and prospects of effective use of water resources of Russia and Central Asia.”
According to the forecasts of the World Bank, the lack of clean drinking water in Central Asia will cause the GDP to decrease by 11%. 80-90% of water resources in the region are used in agriculture. The total area of irrigated land in the region is 7.695 million, and in Uzbekistan it is 4.2 million [4].It is not difficult to imagine the consequences of a shortage of a strategically important resource. This means a threat to the production of agricultural products, a decrease in the volume of exports, and a deterioration in the quality of life of the population engaged in agriculture.What is the solution to the problem?
“Drip irrigation systems. The system is being installed, but it is necessary to expand its coverage. We need to create a system to encourage farmers to introduce drip irrigation, as well as increase water tariffs,” says the director of the “Ma’no” research center. Bakhtiyar Ergashev [4].Director of the Institute of Socio-Economic Research, Dr. Alexey Zubes, believes that Russia can help in these matters [4].
Another important recognition is that Uzbekistan ranks first in Central Asia, second among the CIS countries, fourth in Asia and 13th in the world in terms of introducing water-saving technologies [2].
In conclusion, water scarcity is a global problem of the century, so all the countries of the world should fight it together, help each other, and the population should follow the culture of using water. Because as the water problem grows in a place, the hope of life in that place fades away. If this problem is not prevented, living creatures will be forced to migrate to wetlands.
In my opinion, we need to prevent this problem from becoming bigger like the “Island problem” as soon as possible, and I think that the people of the world should understand that the natural resource will end one day and use it sparingly for the sake of future generations.
After the New Year, we have a new neighbor, Baba Katya. She was a short, plump woman with glasses, rather intelligent-looking, always wrapped in several layers of clothing. When she stopped by, a few creepy-looking men probably dragged all sorts of things for two hours: chests, parcels, some furniture into her room, which was as big as a hall.
The check-in process attracted Alexey and me’s attention, and we sat in the hallway and silently watched what was happening. At some point, one of these thuggish-looking workers barked at my brother and me, and we, frightened, retreated to our room. Here, to fill up the feeling of confidence, we began to sprinkle these two and our neighbor with curses and all sorts of nicknames.
– These two are savages! – I said, waving my arms.
– And the neighbor? She’s no better! Bourgeois! – my brother answered.
One day after school, when my brother and I were walking down the hallway, the door to the new neighbor’s room was open. It has been several weeks since she moved in. Torn by curiosity, we decided to carefully look in to see the treasures she was hiding.
Through the slightly open door we could see several antique cabinets, statues, tapestries, paintings. Meanwhile, the hostess of the room came up to us along the corridor. My brother and I took a step back, expecting reproaches or threats, but something completely unexpected happened. Seeing our undisguised interest in the contents of the room, Baba Katya smiled slightly.
Come on in, guys, – she invited my brother and me.
Her brother was more talkative, as always, and asked her a lot of questions. He had a talent for talking to people, so later he became a famous journalist and traveled a lot around the country and the world.
So, we managed to find out that baba Katya, as the whole apartment called her, is actually Ekaterina Vasilyeva, a well-known restorer with experience. For several years now, she has been engaged in restorations for the state museums of Leningrad, and what struck me most of all, she even worked at home, in conditions when museums were closed or even mothballed. And all these “treasures” are her works that have been restored or are just waiting in the wings.
– Why did you move in with us? Has your house been bombed? Alexey continued his inquiries.
– No, it’s worse… This is not a childish story…” she tried to get away from this topic.
– We are already adults, please tell us! – my brother and I did not let up.
Baba Katya stopped talking, looked at the window, then back at us. She went to the stove in the corner of the room, put a scorcher in it, put the kettle on and slowly began her creepy story.
– About a month ago, a story happened that changed my life and disappointed people forever. I used to live in the central district, also in a communal apartment. I had two rooms there – one bedroom, the second, a larger one, a workshop for restoration. Our apartment has always been friendly, we all knew each other for many years and were almost like family. Only one neighbor was weird, I don’t even want to call her by her first name. After her divorce from her husband, something broke inside her… But even then she had not yet poisoned our way of life. With the onset of the blockade, our apartment began to change, many left. The corridors began to empty.
In the autumn, the famine began, then it became even worse, our neighbors began to disappear. The authorities came to us a couple of times, and then our neighbor began to show incredible diligence in finding and assisting the authorities. She told all sorts of stories, saying that they had gone to their relatives in the village, and those had died in the raid. Strangely enough, everyone believed her.
Then she stopped talking. I saw a tear creeping down the wrinkled cheek of an elderly woman. After a moment of silence, gathering her strength, she continued:
– One day, I worked late and, as it seemed to me, I was not sleeping alone in the apartment. Then a disheveled and scared neighbor flew into my workshop, saying that some strange man of terrible appearance was walking in our hallway. I calmed her down by suggesting that we look at this stranger together. She agreed, on the condition that we take a poker for protection. So we left my room, I went ahead and carried a lamp, and she followed me with a poker.
We walked along the dark corridor for a while until I felt a blow on the back of my head and lost consciousness. I came to my senses, probably after a quarter of an hour, I was lying on the floor in my neighbor’s room, next to her bed. The first thing that caught my eye was the partially butchered body of the girl, which was hidden under the bed. It hit me like an electric shock, I immediately understood everything and hid, the neighbor was standing with her back to me in the other corner and, leaning over the table, sorting knives. I got up quietly, and the poker was lying on the bed.
Grabbing her, I slapped my neighbor on the back without looking at her and ran out of the apartment and onto the street with the last of my strength. My head hurt terribly, and my heart was pounding so hard that it seemed like it was going to pop out of my chest. So I ran through several streets until I bumped into two young soldiers who turned out to be NKVD officers. Through tears, I told them everything. After taking me to some kind of duty station, they hurried to our apartment…
She paused again, sighed, and finished her story with confidence in her voice.
– The remains of five people were found in her room, as the investigation established, for several months she had not only killed and eaten acquaintances, but also sold or changed the meat of victims in markets in different areas. As far as I know, she was shot on the same day, and I could no longer stay in that apartment and moved in with you.
The kettle whistled, Baba Katya covered her face with her hands. There was horror and shame on my brother’s face, and we both regretted our persistence, curiosity and prejudice about this brave woman. I went up to her and hugged her a little, she calmed down, poured tea for us and gave us one candy, it was an incredible rarity, my brother and I had not seen any sweets anywhere for more than six months.
Go to your room in peace, – Baba Katya said to us at parting, – And be careful on the street, and in general with strangers.
Breaking of the shackles A new nation was born With the breath of freedom Uplifted by the joy! The Declaration of independence inspired That all men are equal! Endowed with rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness Our struggles for democracy hoped to prove That people are the king! The brave women of America fought And won the right to vote The brave African Americans fought And won the right to vote For thousands of years our native Americans Looked after this beautiful land To them we must make amends And restore them in every way We now must pledge to To care for each other And build a sense of community White, black, brown and others
Brothers and sisters are we all Natives, Europeans, Hispanics, Africans, Asians and others Make the beautiful mosaic of our land Our army is mighty strong And our soldiers are brave May they defend our great land And be fair and just to the world They put their lives on the line So we must take care of them Our planet is now warming up Looks like it has a fever Fossil fuels we must leave behind Green clean energy is our future For climate change we must lead the world For we have so little time Our mothers we must trust to care For children unborn or born Our teachers we must trust to teach The past, the present and the future The quality of our nation depends on them to prepare Productive, skilled, moral and caring students The quality of our nation depends On healthy, happy and caring people May the ingenuity of our people blossom
So we lead the world in enterprise May the big help the small prosper So the benefits are spread around Our farmers we must support So they have joy and pride They grow the food for us That helps us to survive Today, we may stand divided as if we are bitter foes But we must begin to talk and find that common ground For that we must abandon all untruths And face our future with truth and caring Autocracy and dictatorship we must reject Democracy we must strengthen to have more Transparency, openness and accountability For that is the only way we can Have true people’s power where people are the king Hatred, anger and violence we must reject Love, calmness and nonviolence we must embrace We must all be brothers and sisters And express goodwill and take care of others Macho means to have strength and resolve To protect others from injustice To protect others from bullies The great Chief Seattle told us
“The Earth does not belong to man: Man belongs to the Earth.” So let us resolve on this day To build an America that is green and clean Our lands and coasts and bays and waterways Where our brother and sister species prosper again Where everyone is healthy, happy, sustainably prosperous and at peace Where our women feel empowered and free Where minorities join with the majority to build a better nation Oh! America you can be Free and happy to eternity!
We begin this issue with an announcement. Bird and Beckett Books in San Francisco is hosting a marathon poetry reading on Indigenous People’s Day, Monday October 14th, to benefit the Middle East Children’s Alliance (https://www.mecaforpeace.org/) which provides humanitarian aid to all children of any race or background in Gaza and the West Bank. For a donation to the Alliance of any amount, you can choose a time and come to Bird and Beckett to read any one poem on stage that day. More information here.
Also, several of our contributors invite reviews of their written works. Please feel welcome to contact us and we will put you in touch with the authors.
Noah Berlatsky has a book of poetry recently published from Ben Yehuda Press called *Not Akhmatova*, which is translations/responses/arguments with the work of Anna Akhmatova, thinking about Jewish diaspora.
Daniel De Culla has a collection, Grandparents Dance, that he hopes to publish, and for which he invites reviews. You’re welcome to email him directly at gallotricolor@yahoo.com for a copy.
Duane Vorhees has a book of poetry titled Between Holocausts and invites pre-publication reviews.
Duane Vorhees also offers expertise on a variety of topics and is happy to have writers contact him and pick his brain! Please reach us at synchchaos@gmail.com and we’ll forward your message to Duane.
I grew up in rural SW Ohio (actually about 20 minutes from JD Vance’s home). I lived in Montreal when Rene Leveque won the provincial governorship and launched a French domination movement.
I spent most of my active professional career teaching for the University of Maryland to US military. dependents, and locals in Korea and Japan. I currently live in Thailand.
My PhD was on Immanuel Velikovsky (as a result I probably am one of the world’s leading experts, though I have not engaged in the field for a long time).
Lorraine Caputo’s verbal postcards serve as windows on South and Central American townscapes.
Brian Barbeito dreamily reflects on a suburban neighborhood where he used to live. Soren Sorensen’s art concerns liminal states and the uncanny: a calm suburban house at night with a vague occult reference, hazy suggestions of sunrises, and an arrangement with a dagger and rose. Robert Fleming reinterprets cows in a multitude of surreal directions. Kylian Cubilla Gomez zooms in for closeups of uncanny or unusual aspects of nature.
Mark Young intermixes text, line, and swathes of color in the artworks he calls ‘geographies.’ Patrick Sweeney crafts little vignettes through his haiku-ish sentence fragments. J.D. Nelson brings us another set of quirky monostich poems, peering into the world with gentle humor and curiosity.
Noah Berlatsky illustrates how art can liberate us from commonplace thinking. Kelly Moyer’s photography renders common objects, even a restroom, intriguing visual and tactile experiences. Grant Guy pays tribute to an artistic faction whose ideas he appreciates as they bring a sense of humor to their speculations on life’s absurdities. Doug Holder describes the visceral experience of listening to Etta James.
AG Davis conveys the psychological weight of dislocation in his poetic piece. Ahmad Al-Khatat’s short story evokes the despair and helplessness of soldiers in wartime who cannot return home. Alexander Kabishev evokes the fear and despair of the blockade of Leningrad in his memoirs, a time when home became unrecognizable.
Christopher Bernard envisions the impact of an imagined disaster tearing at the heart of the American city as Pat Doyne pokes fun at Donald Trump’s recent comments on urban immigrants.
Parichita Saha explores the roles of Greek and Roman mythologies in their respective cultures. Z.I. Mahmud explores how W.B. Yeats’ poem Leda and the Swan relates the themes of the Greek myth to the Ireland of his time, situating the story within his own world. Kahlil Crawford celebrates the power of language to provide shelter and refuge and to convey and inspire thoughts that go even deeper than human culture. Aminova Oghiloy pays tribute to the culture and scholarly work done in her region of Turtkul, Uzbekistan.
Texas Fontanella ponders whether the answers to life’s ultimate questions are simple or complex and whether we stand a chance of figuring them out.
Maja Milojkovic finds belonging and peace through a very personal faith and sees the inspiration of the Lord in nature. Michael Robinson reflects on the steady and caring hand of the Lord throughout his life as a Christian in two pieces, here and here.Mahmud Dzukogi speaks to the spiritual grounding people receive through faith, compassion, and ethics.
Jacques Fleury reminds religious leaders and adherents of our common humanity before God. He points out that racial marginalization can manifest within church settings as well as in the secular world and must be confronted as part of the practice of faith.
Mesfakus Salahin reminds us that we are all equal at the moment of death. Eva Lianou Petropoulou urges readers to hold onto innocence in a harsh world. Daniel De Culla captures a loss-of-innocence moment for a young and naive girl.
Some contributors speak to inclusion and belonging within society. Mykyta Ryzhykh laments the callousness of humanity towards the vulnerable. Nahyean Taronno memorializes the courage of student protesters who recently changed the course of Bangladeshi society. Rakhimjonova Mashhura highlights Uzbekistan’s efforts to include children with disabilities in the national education system.
Salihu Muhammad Ebba reminds us of the ubiquity of disease and biological predators and our shared human biological vulnerability. Raquel Barbeito brings a tender eye to her drawings of cats and people, crafting images with colors and lines softly fading into each other.
Many writers find their spiritual and emotional home with another person, or wish to do so. Jasna Gugic expresses the beauty of close, yet wordless, intimacy. Fadwa Attia celebrates the deep and steady love she has found with her partner. Mahbub Alam also speaks of a tender, intimate love. Faleeha Hassan expresses each of the ways in which a close relationship affects and inspires her life. Dr. Prasanna Kumar Dalai contributes delightful rhyming romantic sonnets. Dilnura Kurolova highlights the value of close friendship.
J.J. Campbell speaks to the years-long pain of lost love. Nosirova Gavhar shares a tragic tale where a man recovers from his injuries, yet loses the love of his life. Graciela Noemi Villaverde reflects on the emptiness of her home as she grieves a loved one. Otteri Selvakumar shares his hopes for an honest conversation between lovers to clear the air.
David Sapp reflects on his connection to his father across generations through their shared boyhood collections. Lidia Popa reflects on the memory of those ancients who have died and been lost to history. Isabel Gomez de Diego highlights the smallness of humans, mere children amid the size of nature and culture.
O’tkir Mulikboyev speaks to the depth and breadth of cultural and natural history in the voice of a river flowing to the sea. Sayani Mukherjee muses on rivers, and other natural phenomena, as reminders of impermanence. Utso Bhattacharyya celebrates the wisdom of ecologically sustainable development, including drawing hydroelectric power from moving water.
Jerome Berglund captures and celebrates moments and the flow of time in his mixed media art. Duane Vorhees speaks of physical intimacy, aging, and love and art in his poetry.
Elmaya Jabbarova compares human emotion to the rainbow, asserting that a wide range of feelings are natural. Sandy Rochelle urges us not to fear suffering, but to learn as much as we can by all of our life experiences.
Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa illustrates the pain of social rejection and abuse, yet reminds us that every season passes, like the night back into day. Dr. Jernail S. Anand offers up wisdom for various stages of life. Ilhomova Mohichehra speculates on life’s mysteries while watching the rain and asserts that on a future sunny day, she will choose to be happy. Idris Sheikh conveys the strength of hope through a poem about seeds. Thaalith Abubakar Gimba affirms his hope for the future despite others’ cynicism.
