The bride 

On Thursday, the first of April. University Street in the Karrada district was alive with a grand carnival. Fifteen carriages drawn by white horses paraded in majestic succession, perfectly coordinated, one after another. Leading the way was the bride's carriage, the sixteenth in total. This carriage stood out in every aspect. Colours were purposefully scattered across it, and in bold, green Kufic script, it read: Congratulations on your marriage. 

The horse was adorned in attire befitting the occasion, showered in vibrant, glittering colours. The coachman, dressed in colourful garb, his fez standing proudly atop his head, played with a leather rein and whipped the horse with the force of lightning, uttering incomprehensible words that only his companion and faithful horse might understand. The faces of those participating in the celebration glowed with laughter and joy, beaming with contentment. Everyone was happy. 

One remarked playfully, "A good idea... an innovative approach... horse-drawn carriages instead of cars." Another chimed in, "A new trend that might become widespread in the future." Someone else jested, "Atrees' marriage to Fouada is invalid..." The carriages jostled forward, horses neighing, applause growing louder and more vibrant. Bodies, heated by the warmth of the carnival, began to sweat. The women's faces turned redder and shinier. 

Children ran, delighted, drumming behind the horses. The women's ululations, both familiar and unfamiliar, echoed high. Children's voices rose and fell. Young girls sang an Iraqi song by Maida Nuzhet: Tonight is their henna night, and in Basra, they celebrate their wedding. Other girls echoed the second verse: Basra has become a paradise. Everyone was lost in their own world, but the bride and groom were in their own world. 

A smile graced the bride's lips, her dreamy, radiant eyes filled with meaning. The groom, with heartfelt sincerity, said, "Today is the day I've always dreamed of, being by your side, my dear." She lowered her head shyly, a faint smile playing on her lips, and replied, "Me too." He continued "You have no idea how much I love you and how I've longed for this day to come. Believe me, I'm not exaggerating when I say it's the happiest day of my life." 

She remained silent, perhaps out of shyness. He paused, then added, "I will, God willing, provide everything that makes you happy, my love." With a hint of mischief, he continued, "Do I have anything more precious than you now? You are the garden, and I am the gardener." Her lips parted in a broad smile, and her honey-colored eyes and angelic, childlike face radiated contentment. 

She responded, "I will make our home a bed of roses and the air filled with fragrance. I will serve you with the lashes of my eyes and remain faithful to you as long as I live." His heart warmed at her words, which fell upon him like pieces of ice on a scorching day. He gathered his composure and said, "Thank you for these heartfelt emotions... I always knew you were like this. Trust me, my dear, I will buy you a large house by the Tigris, with servants. I will make every room unique in its design and furniture. My love, I want to see you as a queen in this palace, an empress in this home." 

The coachman overheard some of these words, raised his whip high, and struck the horse forcefully as if to say, "Enough lies and deceit on this poor girl." The wedding procession continued its calm march, turning left onto Abu Nuwas Street, where the bars and clubs were. Men with beer bottles waved in celebration of the wedding parade, shouting various words, both polite and impolite. Ululations rose, and voices sang songs from a golden era. Words floated from here and there, indicating that on a wedding day, everything is permissible. 

The procession exited Abu Nuwas Street and turned onto Saadoun Street. The groom, feeling encouraged, said to her, "I will fulfil all your dreams. Don't be surprised, my heart burns for you, almost worshipfully. I will pray to God fervently to achieve our goal." The bride felt reassured by his praise, which was filled with love and devotion. Waves of affection and tenderness rose within her. 

She trusted him more and more, finding comfort in this man who had given her life and restored her identity. She believed his words, seeing them as honey from a sincere heart and a loyal, honorable husband. She drifted into the dreamy world of his rosy words, living in another realm, believing spring would soon bloom for her, unaware of the obstacles the future held. 

The groom continued with his sweet words, sending them to the bride, who was lost in a sea of happiness and perpetual spring. The couple remained immersed in this bliss, the relatives and guests continued their shouting and singing, and the coachman relentlessly whipped the horse. The street was still crowded with people, but the procession moved on joyously. 

Suddenly, the horse's leg twisted, and it collapsed. The bride's carriage quickly overturned, In the hospital, the bride had lost one of her eyes due to a severe blow to her head but the groom was unharmed. The groom looked at his bride intently, said nothing, turned his back, and left the hospital.The next day, he sent a note to his bride in the hospital: It's not proper for me to be married to a one-eyed woman, you are divorced. 

The bride shook her head and said, “Thank God...he failed on the first try." 

By Abdul Zahra Amara 
Translated by Faleeha Hassan

Abdul Zahra Amara Novelist, Storyteller, and Scientific Researcher Birth: 1951, Amara, Maysan Governorate, Southern Iraq Education: Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering from the College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, 1976 

Professional Roles: Editor-in-Chief of Sumerian Amarji Magazine Member of the Iraqi Engineers Syndicate with the rank of Consulting Engineer Published Works: Novels: Tomorrow I Will Leave! A Lover from Kanza Rabba Flu in Baghdad No Time for Tears Dogs in the Dark Blood in the Fish Lake The Servants Are on Vacation Baghdad Never Sleeps Fadia Waiting for the Moon The Blonde of Basra I Adore You Until the End of My Life Palace Rats A Forest of Thieves The Glow of Youth Cellist Stories: The Sun Shines in Women's Eyes Misses of Babylon A Cat on the Road When Do You Take Off the Turban? The Secretary and the Fall.

FORMATION OF MONOLOGICAL SPEECH IN CHILDREN

Tursunova Sarvinoz, student of group 3-22, faculty of pedagogy, Shahrisabz State Pedagogical Institute.

 Abstract: Monological speech is formed in the process of teaching storytelling – children learn two categories of oral monologic speech – retelling and narration, descriptive stories, narrative stories, and proof stories.

 Key words: monologic speech, story, speech, speech, children,

 Introduction.

  In teaching children to form a widespread thought, the educator needs to form in them the simplest knowledge about the structure of the text (beginning, middle, end), and the imagination of the connections between the sentence and the components of the thought. It is this indicator (a means of communication between sentences) that participates as one of the important conditions for the formation of the fluency of speech thought. Any complete sentence will have common options for linking phrases. The most common way to connect sentences is chaining. Any complete sentence will have common options for linking phrases. The most common way to connect sentences is chaining. Pronouns, lexical repetition, and synonymous substitution are the main tools of this communication. Chain communication makes speech more flexible and colorful, because when a child learns this method, he avoids repeating the same word.

 The teacher should teach children to connect sentences in parallel, in which sentences are not connected to each other, but are compared or even contrasted (A strong wind blew. The rabbit hid in the nest). Through this approach, children’s monologic speeches are formed.

 A monologue is a speech addressed to others by one person

 and telling stories, reporting, retelling what they read or heard

 it is manifested in the form of asking questions and answering.The main part. When teaching older preschoolers to compose fluent texts, it is necessary to pay special attention to the development of the ability to reveal the topic and the main idea of the spoken word, and to put a title on the text.

 Intonation plays a big role in the organization of fluent thought, therefore, the formation of the skill of using the intonation of certain sentences will help to note the structural unity and completeness of the text as a whole.

 The joint creation of words by adults and children is the main condition for the development of monologic speech. Children who have just turned five years old show interest in telling familiar tales, weaving stories, telling stories from their personal experiences. An adult should support the child’s initiative by asking guiding and clarifying questions, creating game situations. It is important for the joint creation of words that the teacher quietly tells the content of the story, the plan, the possible development of events, the form of words. The formation of the grammatical system in children – syntax, morphology, word formation – has its own special features, and for their development, the pedagogue needs to use various tools. Stimulating language games for mastering morphology and word formation; and for the development of syntax, it is important to create a motivation to express a wide range of ideas. Didactic games and exercises in grammatical content are an important means of stimulating children’s language games and their activity in the field of grammar. It is necessary for the teacher to teach children the ability to think of a word combination, and then to correctly connect words with each other in a sentence. It is recommended to form complex syntactic structures in children’s thoughts in the situation of written speech, that is, in a situation where a child speaks the text, and an adult writes it down.

 Children’s speech serves as a reliable means of communication only if it is understandable to others. This depends on the consistent, fluent and complete expression of thoughts in words, the choice of specific words, the purity and correctness of pronunciation. Monologue speech requires a good memory, focus on the form and content of the speech. Therefore, at the same time, monologue speech relies on thinking. According to the above tasks and contents of the monologue speech development program, children in the middle group of the kindergarten should master the types of storytelling:

 1.

 Retelling familiar tales and stories.

 2.

 Retelling the story and short stories that were read for the first time in the classes.

 3.

 Create a visual story about the things you see: toys, plants, clothes, dishes, furniture, etc.

 4.

 Creating a visual story based on real-life pictures.

 5.

 Children tell stories from memory based on their experiences.

 The text chosen for retelling should be understandable for children.

 Retelling lessons are created taking into account the personal characteristics of each age group, their retelling abilities. With the help of these lessons, monologic speech is formed. Summary. In this case, the child should control the words chosen by the child to clearly and correctly express the author’s opinion.

 Assessment of children’s retelling is one of the important methodological methods. In evaluating the children’s retelling, telling about its advantages and disadvantages, mobility. a short analysis is necessary. With this, it is necessary to fulfill the following program task: to educate children’s ability to notice the place that does not correspond to the text in the retelling. By teaching children to retell stories, the teacher affects the development of their speech activity and independence.

 Used literature.

 1. Kadirova F.R., Kadirova R.M. Development of children’s speech

 theory and methodology. – T.: 2006

 2 Sadiqova Sh. A. “Pedagogy before school”. -T.: Science and

 technology, 2017.

Tursunova Sarvinoz Fazliddinovna was born on March 22, 1989 in the Kitab district of Kashkadarya region. Since childhood, she was interested in poetry and as an amateur artist, she has been creating on various topics. She is a 2nd year student at the State Pedagogical Institute. In January, she participated in the conference of the National Human Rights and Humanitarian Federation. She has published works in many anthologies and is an environmental volunteer and a member of Juntos pos las Letras organization.

Colleagues and Buddies                                                                  

Jim and I certainly weren’t colleagues. He finished a pharmacy degree, and I was an art school dropout – and couldn’t afford Kenyon. I drove a twenty-year-old Ford. He had a flashy new sportscar. He counted pills. I stocked shelves. He said, “That’s a pretty big word you’ve got there” when I used “pharmaceutical” in a sentence. Soon after he lost his ride, his job, and his life to cocaine, I signed up for classes and quit the drugstore. Despite his condescension, I was always willing to be Jim’s buddy.

Chuck turned my colleagues against me less than a year after his arrival. Got me fired. All to move up in seniority and likely simply for-the-hell-of-it. I thought we were going to be buddies. I was counting on it. After I was gone, he was reprimanded for sexual harassment – for calling my replacement at all hours just after her first interview. He got tenure. She signed an NDA. I was the lucky one.

Andy wore aluminum painted shoes and rumpled thrift store jackets and hung vintage Soviet era posters in his office when he taught freshman English composition part-time. We invited him and his wife over for dinner – my chicken tortellini soup. (During the meal he made us aware he was a former sous-chef.) And he drove me to the ER once. Andy and I might have been great colleagues but never buddies. Sometime after he became dean, he began wearing crisp suits, unimaginative striped ties and expensive, polished loafers. That’s when he learned to equivocate, evade, and obfuscate. He exhibited a talent for exquisite prevarications. Now no longer dean, he’s back to teaching freshman English composition. Andy didn’t have buddies.

Jolene and I shared our passion for Thomas Hardy, but after listening to a vicious castigation of her husband over the phone in her office (I offered to come back later), I knew we wouldn’t be buddies. But Kate and I were meant to be buddies. We traded info on the best therapists and latest OCD meds. She tended my son when my daughter was born. But she proved to be an incompetent and sanctimonious administrator – the sanctimony a camouflage for the incompetence. Impossible to ignore. Out of spite over a slight, she destroyed my program in one swift stroke. Stress caused her to retire early.

John was a heck-of-a-nice-guy. We ate many breakfasts together before class, eggs over-easy for me, oatmeal and fruit for him. As our sons were the same age, we compared parenting styles and over-tipped Ellen, our waitress, because we talked too long. I gave him a tour of the art museum, showed him my father’s grave and the stained-glass windows at St. Vincent de Paul. When my budget came up in committee, he merely sat there saying nothing and doing nothing while our vindictive peers slashed away. John was a lousy colleague. But I forgave him. His son was sent to prison for five to ten for theft and drugs, over-dosed when released, and chose to die rather than see his legs amputated. John and I couldn’t remain buddies.

Todd and I never needed to think about how or why we were buddies. Todd was a good husband, good father, good colleague, an honorable man. Little kids wanted to sit on his lap. Our families gathered for New Year’s Eve and watched parades and fireworks together. He put a six pack on my doorstep after I pulled down the poison ivy in his trees while they were at church. (He was highly allergic.) He saved a very pregnant student during class with quick-thinking CPR. His only flaw was dying in the shower of a heart attack at forty-three. No notice whatsoever. It was difficult to forgive Todd for that, but I could not help but love him.

David Sapp, writer, artist, and professor, lives along the southern shore of Lake Erie in North America. A Pushcart nominee, he was awarded Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Grants for poetry and the visual arts. His poetry and prose appear widely in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. His publications include articles in the Journal of Creative Behavior, chapbooks Close to Home and Two Buddha, a novel Flying Over Erie, and a book of poems and drawings titled Drawing Nirvana.

To all the antidepressants I’ve ingested before

Lexapro

You were the first and I didn’t know what to expect

My mother had forbade me from SSRI’s

when I needed them the most

We had a good run for a few years

but then you took a turn

Left me a dizzy, dazzled mess

Couldn’t drive my car for more than a mile

without swinging open the door

to empty you and my lunch onto the side of the road

Sorry, but we needed to break up

Our relationship was no longer sustainable

I don’t want to ever see you

or the mess you make

ever again

Wellbutrin

I wish I could call you a fling

Truly I wish I’d never swallowed

My mind had never been in such a state

Let’s leave our memories in the past

and never speak of them again

Buspirone

I need you to know

We may have met at the wrong time

In another world maybe we’d be together still

Our short time that we shared

I can hardly remember it except that

It wasn’t you, it was me

Zoloft

We are still limping along together

but I am hoping to see less of you

We started off small

but swallowing 100mg of you

is simply too much

I can’t be the only one putting in the work between us

You make me feel like a shell of myself

I am stuck in neutral

There are no ups or downs

I can’t keep living like this

It’s taking everything inside me

to not throw you out the window

Boiling water

The thing about human minds

is they can make up things

without your permission

Years of craving control and stability

may look like getting a college degree

In spite of your own family

trying to drag you back to them

and all their codependent habits

Five years after you get that college degree

kicking and screaming

You’re still suffering

Your therapist has told you

your family is happy being miserable

and misery loves company

They have shown you they don’t want to change

Stop asking your mother to come see you

Stop calling your grandmother

if she keeps saying anytime is a bad time

You’re her only granddaughter

and she is angry that she has to turn down her television

to talk to you

That isn’t love

When are you going to learn

it isn’t in your best interest to interact with them

You are sticking your hand

in a boiling pot of water

Even if you pour some cold water into it

it’s still going to be a boiling pot of water

You’re still going to get burned

Diamonds & dust

When I asked

why we never wed

I remember you said

You couldn’t afford a ring

A ring?

Such a worthless thing

So I said to you

What is the difference

between diamonds and dust?

They start

with the same letter

and they

are ground dwellers

What is the difference

between diamonds and dust

when the finger

that wears the diamond

turns to dust?

Marissa LaPorte is a resident of Michigan; she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Grand Valley State University. Marissa has also been published in Wingless Dreamer, The Fictional Café, Speculative 66, Sick Lit Magazine, The Drabble, The Flash Fiction Press, and more.

Raising the war

Like a pet
The tyrants raise the war
At first, they feed it
Their sick dreams
Their reviews of the soldiers under the heat of the summer sun
Maps they have imagined for their conquests
Speeches they have written in dark rooms
The future of our children
And when that war grows
It chews away at us
Every day
Every hour
Every moment
Like a ruminating animal.

Faleeha Hassan is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, and playwright born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967, who now lives in the United States. Faleeha was the first woman to write poetry for children in Iraq. She received her master's degree in Arabic literature, and has now published 26 books, her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosnian, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek, Serbia, Albanian, Pakistani, Romanian, Malayalam, Chinese, ODIA, Nepali and Macedonian language. She is a Pulitzer Prize Nominee for 2018, and a Pushcart Prize Nominee for 2019. She's a member of the International Writers and Artists Association. Winner of the Women of Excellence Inspiration award from SJ magazine 2020, and the Winner of the Grand Jury Award (the Sahitto International Award for Literature 2021). She served on the Women of Excellence selection committees for 2023, was a winner of a Women In The Arts award in 2023 and a Member of Who's Who in America 2023. She's on the Sahitto Award's judging panel for 2023 and a cultural ambassador between Iraq and the US.  

Ibrokhimova Ilnura Shukhratovna was born on August 19, 2006 in Kumkurgan district of Surkhandarya region.

The city of Termiz. 2nd year student of the Faculty of Industrial Technologies of the Termiz Institute of Engineering Technology.

PRINCIPLES AND LEVELS OF FOOD SAFETY ASSESSMENT Ibrahimova Ilnura Shukhratovna 2nd year student of the Faculty of Industrial Technologies of the Termiz Institute of Engineering Technology +99890.246.96.76. Abstract: An article about food safety, requirements and standards.

Key words: Laws and regulations in the evaluation of food products, GOST standard requirements, measures aimed at determining the distance of products. Introduction: Finding a solution to a number of issues aimed at providing the population with healthy food products, improving a healthy lifestyle and increasing the income of the population.

Main part: Food safety refers to the safety of food products during production, storage, preparation and consumption in order to prevent food-borne diseases and disorders. Food products are among the most traded goods in the world. As markets become increasingly global and the world’s population continues to grow, the global food supply chain will only continue to grow in scale and complexity. Due to these megatrends affecting the mass production and distribution of food, food safety has never been more important. Food safety is one of the most pressing challenges facing countries around the world.

The UN is also saying today that it is time to completely change the approach to food production and distribution. After all, in an ideal situation, agriculture, forestry and fisheries are able to provide everyone with food and create a source of income for people, as in the brochure. Moreover, in such a case, agriculture will develop in the interests of people, and environmental protection measures will be implemented.

According to UN data, 815 million of the world’s population are starving, and by 2050 this number will increase to 2 billion. 12.9 percent of them live in developing countries. 45% of deaths among children under the age of five are caused by malnutrition. Today, 3.1 children die every year because of this. Agriculture is the largest employer in the world. Today, 40 percent of Kurrai’s population earns their living through this industry. It is the main source of income and employment for families in poor villages.

From Slim to Slimmer

When she

Walked out

On him

He knew

That his chances

Of becoming

A father

Had gone

From slim

To slimmer.

Taylor Dibbert is a writer, journalist, and poet in Washington, DC. “Rescue Dog,” his fifth book, was published in May.