Synchronicity

Two caged parrots
mimicking
a false climax


Tone Deaf

In the fading light
the bare trees
whisper
your half thought-out
thoughts

The Last Visit

Growing child-like
& hungry
in her lonely
reindeer eyes

Inflation

Warblers living
on dollar store
crumbs

The Noisy Nude

Painted in gouache
& several variations
of pink
the nude in the picture
giggles
as the art critics
walk by.

Kyle Hemmings has work published in Otoliths, Pure Slush. Potato Soup Journal,and elsewhere  He loves 50s sci-fi films and 60s garage bands.

I AM
My Attention
  Unconditionally 
      & just Rest a bit.

  As I AM is Attracting
 As LOVE draws near.

     ENERGY   is
            FORCE times
                    DISTANCE,
perhaps as
 time draws 
  nearer this thought
    unconditionally.
 
      I AM
        Here
 Calls  Looking  at
      The Expectations
           of LOVE
  & just Blessed a bit.




by  John Edward Culp
Scripted Sunday Morning 
October 30, 2022

Note: In 1840, Sir Thomas Browne’s skull was removed from the St. Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich when his coffin was “accidentally” disturbed by workmen. The skull wasn’t returned to lie with the rest of Browne’s earthly remains until 1922. In addition to writing “Religio Medici,” “Urne-Buriall,” and “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,” the 17th century physician and essayist is credited with coining dozens of words including medical, hallucination, electricity, exhaustion and coma.) 

From the Misadventures of Sir Thomas Browne’s Skull

#1: Medical

after testing magnetic fluid with apples

tongue tied with a string 

& knock      

     ing on the farmhouse 

floorboards 

in Hydesville, NY

the Fox sisters gnaw’d

the skull 

of Thomas Browne 

from seed husks of sunflower & Caledonian pine

communing a shadow image 

assembled like the worldly goods 

of a Dutch still life

14.7 cm wide 

right socket cribra orbitalia,

spermaceti wedged like a fennel bulb in the left 

& drip

     ping with the endless mutations 

of Nature.

#2: Hallucination 

her eyes mention sunsets, briefly 

but then she nods twice at the overcooked agave 

cankering my broad lace collar & breeches

“hole in your lip,” she says & I 

glance in the bar mirror at my skull

a festoon of beads & sequins, almonds

painted leaves & roses wreathed around 22 bones 

that come together like a puzzle, a calavera 

that upon closer inspection is missing a name

it could be me

or just another departed 

soul. 

#3: Electricity

I sd to the son 

of the candle & soap maker

“a tenuous emanation 

or continued effluvium

retracteth fire from the clouds”

whereupon the early capitalist 

stood in a field 

with a large handkerchief

waiting for Zeus

to jump from / the sky. 

#4: Exhaustion 

After 

a 48 year 

country ramble

I’m sitting at the Horn of Plenty 

in Whitechapel 

& I says, Jack

the body is open 

to contemplation. 

#5: Coma

doorknobs & doorjambs w/ hasps & hinges / 

yellow bananas launched on blue boats / telephone game /

the benefit of planting trees in latticelike formation / snowflakes 

slide softly soon / where is the square / 

doors and jabs w/ hooks & hikes / 

blueberries craunched on blue coats / broken telephone /

dead kingfishers do not make good weathervanes / Edinburgh / 

the skin of a snake bred out of the spinal marrow of man / 

After The Storm

Candle light
Dark sky
Silhouettes of trees
Line the view outside
Booming thunder
Flashing light
Replaced by the sound
Of crickets in the night
Dull fire shines bright
A blanket of wet
Coats the surrounding land
It’s calm now

FYI: Synchronized Chaos Magazine will hold an in-person event the afternoon of New Year’s Eve in conjunction with the Third Space Gallery in Davis, CA. Exact address and time to be announced.

This event is a concert, art show, and literary reading with the theme of Metamorphosis. What has changed over the past few decades? What can we learn from people of different generations about how to hold onto wisdom from the past while transforming and adapting to a new, and hopefully better, world? So far participants include the Davis High School Activist Club, speakers from Bet Haverim’s Social Justice group, and musicians Joseph Menke, Avery Burke, and the Electric Turtlez.

This event will be a benefit for Sacramento Take Back the Night and the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan, (which you may support online here) both of which are grassroots and anti-imperialist organizations working for all people to be able to safely participate fully in the cultural lives of their communities. We encourage attendees to donate what they can to support either or both organizations and then come enjoy the show!

For updates and reminders, please sign up here on Facebook or Eventbrite.

Also, Abdullah Al-Mamun announces Bangladesh’s search for high school creative talent.

Welcome, readers, to mid-October’s issue of Synchronized Chaos. This time around we explore the power and pitfalls of contemplation and various ways of understanding our world.

Henry Bladon harnesses insomnia to pose meandering questions about our existence. Similarly, Celeste Alisse’s protagonist ponders life by literally staring at the wall.

Yahia Lababidi relates the psychological insights he gained through his desert journeys. Mesfakus Salahin writes of embracing the mystery and the wildness of nature. Christina Chin and Uchechukwu Onyedikam highlight our inescapable connection to the broader natural world through images of light, water, and death in their poetic collaboration.

Ubali Ibrahim Hashimu finds his romantic emotions reflected by the beauty of the moonlight. Mahbub writes of a dignified love with an elegant sunset for a backdrop.

R.W. Stephens‘ photography dwarfs human subjects beneath trees and sky. On a more human scale, Kathleen Denizard celebrates the solace she finds in gardening and Channie Greenberg presents lush images of fruits on her kitchen.

Tanvir Islam presents a paean to birds, while the hero of Syed Tabin Ahbab’s science fiction tale harnesses trees to produce oxygen, the bane of robots gone wrong.

Gaurav Ojha opines that the best way to understand ourselves is through mindfully understanding our relationships rather than withdrawing from them, by isolating ourselves in the wilderness or anywhere else. Z.I. Mahmud probes a humanist way of connecting with the natural world along with our own society in his academic piece on Rachel Carson and David Attenborough.

Fernando Sorrentino’s short story takes a humane perspective as well. He humorously dramatizes the effects of rapid privatization of social services, in this case, criminal justice and mental health care, on a honeymooning couple.

Jack Galmitz observes the details of his kitchen as he cooks a fish stew. Maid Corbic presents a thoughtful paean to Prague and to Austria’s cultural heritage. Chimezie Ihekuna continues his countdown to Christmas with two pieces in which lovers and families eagerly await the holiday.

Oona Haskovec wonders about memory through an imagined photo. What might we be doing now, or soon, that will become important in the future? Sherzod Komil Khalil reminds modern city dwellers how foreign their lives and vocabulary would seem to outsiders in his short story.

David Topper honors his artist father’s memory by making observations about his life from his last painting. Christopher Bernard contributes a more ambiguous tribute to both Queen Elizabeth and to the earth in the time of climate change.

Ridwanullah Solahudeen acknowledges that the gifts of nature and the divine come and go, in our unpredictable world. Md. Tanvir Hossain reminds us that even our own actions are to some extent out of our control, while Faroq Faisal writes of human frailty and mortality.

Chloe Schoenfeld illustrates the senselessness of real-life violence through the metaphor of mangled dramatic productions.

In her other two poetic collaborations, with James Young and Kimberly Kuchar, Christina Chin draws upon fall, death, and Halloween imagery, again reminding us of our inevitable journeys to the grave.

Babatimehin Asiwaju’s poem relates the psychological distress of a lonely man who has barely survived great trauma. Mobarak Saed’s piece is of a trapped soul’s quest for escape.

James Whitehead’s intellectual poems probe mortality, innocence, and the development of a person’s character.

J.J. Campbell returns with a mixture of psychological determination and resignation, while Adepoju Timileyin writes of prophecy and destiny, concepts which may sound exciting, but also convey a lack of control and choice over one’s own life.

Sayani Mukherjee’s piece regales us with its bold life force, triumphant over misunderstanding and ignorance. J.D. DeHart’s speakers declare their own intellectual identity in the face of the obvious and subtle dangers of everyday life, including the pressure to conform. J.K. Durick also writes of social contracts and conformity, of self-expression through traditional and sanctioned channels.

Md. Nurujjamman’s detective tale shows a crime solved by one brave, conscientious and observant person. Richard LeDue shares his personal dreams of transformation, of building a better world.

John Culp sends up Dickinsonian odes to laying fear to rest, while Patricia Walsh urges us not to overlook the power misfits and introverts have, whether for good or ill.

Sayani Mukherjee, in a second piece, takes solace in her poetry and in the passage of time.

Aisha MLabo shares her artistic inspiration and aspirations, while Jaylan Salah celebrates the eccentric genius of loner and film director Jim Jarmusch.

Jim Meirose’s writing takes an unusual approach, with a surrealist reflection on the pope fish, while Peter Cherches renders up writing prompts as “not quite stories.”

Alan Catlin gives poems of discovery: found poems from book titles and postcards. But also pieces of minimalism and loss, of the power and cruelty of cultural and aesthetic erasure.

Robert Fleming creates “mathematical” renditions of human relationships and Queen music, while Kenny Johannson presents a stained and typed manifesto as a work of art.

We hope the diverse artworks in this issue will inspire you to contemplate and create as well.