Welcome, everyone, to Synchronized Chaos’ mid-April issue.

This issue brings everyone along with great energy, with a skip, a jump, and a hop!

We invite our readers to join us for the Hayward Lit Hop, a free, all-ages one-day literary festival in Hayward, California where various literary groups will host readings at different venues up and down B Street. Event kicks off at 2pm in Heritage Plaza across the street from the downtown library and continues at various places until the afterparty at 7pm at the Sun Gallery.

Now, for the submissions!

Jazira Mi explores the joy, and the risks, of embracing life with both feet forward. John Culp expresses the joy of a rare moment of the seemingly impossible.

Kumar Ghimire speaks to the dreams that encourage him to push forward in reality. Mahbub Alam illustrates the risks and the joy of banding together with friends, family and neighbors and stepping into the unknown.

Some artists push forward through experimenting with craft and structure rather than through direct assertions within their pieces.

Mark Young contributes rough, surreal, textured artwork that is more about image and color than representation. Tuyet Van Do presents moments of ironic and poignant juxtaposition in her haikus while Jim Meirose presents a surrealist take on a poor sod’s visit to the doctor.

Eddie Heaton takes us on a tour through this life and the underworld through his mythical poetry.

This issue does “look before it leaps,” not ignoring the real difficulties and dangers many face in life.

Chimezie Ihekuna addresses the malaise continual artistic and professional frustration brings. Daniel De Culla comments on the dangers many young people face from predators in a tragicomic poem of advice for students.

Sunil Saroa conveys the loneliness of living among those who don’t understand you. William Hartwick paints a portrait of life with bipolar and Tourette’s and reminds us of the daily discrimination people with invisible or misunderstood disabilities face.

Stephen House relates how he realized the injustice of a dangerous work situation long after it had passed.

Yet, other writers point to hope, even when postponed, or to the possibility of being able to choose to respond to one’s circumstances in a courageous way.

Chloe Schoenfeld encourages people to persevere through difficult times through the metaphor of a butterfly. Maja Milojkovic raises her fist and heart for love in defiance of oppression and death.

Maurizio Brancaleoni suggest that some may tame their fear of global crises by exaggerating them for comedic effect. Whether this is a form of heroic courage or cowardly denial is up to readers to judge.

Anne Hendricks-Jones’ character assumes an alter ego as a heroine to save children from a school shooting. Sandro Piedrahita’s piece celebrates another kind of heroism, patient love and forgiveness amid the violence and fear of drug trafficking in South America.

Tammy Spears shares loving pieces in memory of her personal heroine, her deceased mother, and also honors her sister and soldiers who have chosen a path of courage and sacrifice. These are excerpts from her collection Flutter of an Eye.

Graciela Noemi Villaverde expresses her longing to be treated as a co-creator rather than a muse or a work of art herself, in a piece that could be addressed to a partner or a deity. Film critic Jaylan Salah takes a second look at beautiful bombshell Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of femininity on screen and suggests that it may be more complex and assertive than it appears at first glance.

Many other writers explore the timeless themes of time, change, cycles, love and loss, grief, healing, and renewal.

Laura Marino’s bilingual haiku follows different seasons and times of day through a succession of moments in nature. Noah Berlatsky comments on being in sync, or out of sync, with the passage of time.

Laura Stamps captures a personality, place, and time through chatty postcard poems.

Mashhura Usmonova recollects the tender bloom of first love while Shahnoza Ochildiyeva conveys moments of young, idealistic soul-level happiness. Linda Springhorn Gunther reviews Lisa Scottoline’s novel Eternal, which situates the beauty of pasta and young love among the repression of 1930s Germany.

Brenton Booth captures short vignettes of moments of connection, real and imagined. Wazeed Abdullah reflects on the love and nurturance of families.

Robiul Awal Esa’s heartwarming story illustrates the power of kindness and gratitude for those who have helped us along in life.

Channie Greenberg sends up another gentle photographic submission, this time of beige and orange flowers. Don Bormon celebrates the natural beauty and renewal of spring.

Haze Fry questions whether time alone has the power to heal the wounds of a decayed romance. Zadie McGrath describes the deflation of a youthful romance in a school setting.

Mesfakus Salahin evokes the lingering aftermath of loss, whether death or the end of a relationship.

Azemina Krehic laments the ruins of a beautiful relationship that fell apart after a trip to historic Trieste. Emina Delilovic-Kevric grieves over the loss of her mother’s love, which happened even before her death.

J.J. Campbell addresses and accepts mortality and grounds his answers to life’s big spiritual questions in the here-and-now. Duane Vorhees explores the changing and seemingly arbitrary tides of fate, evolution, and personal destiny.

David Kopaska-Merkel draws on history to show how our personal and collective pasts can remain with us as we move into the future.

Christopher Bernard highlights the transcendent music of the Kronos Quartet that spans space, time, and different generations.

This issue melds the boundaries of space and time as well, representing work from contributors of different generations and nationalities. We hope that it pushes forward your own creative dreams.

can't talk my teen self

out of that second date

father paradox


-----

Cinderella

married the Prince

maid's tight dress


-----

Ice Age wanes


every generation

the village moves


the last midden still

visible at low tide

not the graves


-----

Mom and Dad's

Pleistocene honeymoon

born 10,000 years late

She doesn’t know it, yet



She doesn’t know, yet

But one day she’ll, know

What it means, to die

And be reborn, beautiful she will be

She’ll spread her wings, fly

But she doesn’t know it yet

She doesn’t know it yet

But she will be, the butterfly

That she cried over, when she squashed it beneath her shoe

She doesn’t know it yet, the butterfly

Survived, and flew off

Afraid, but alive

How alive, was she

When she found her own kingdom by the sea

But she doesn’t know it yet

How unlike everyone I’ve ever met

My beautiful, darling Annabel Lee

VERTEBRATE EVOLUTION

You, sweet guest at a sugared feast,
soon may just be dust in a seared waste.
Today I carry the lash
but tomorrow wear the leash.
Fates and fortunes shift and swerve.
Voices drift from noise to verse.
Some of us skeletons shall end as relics.


A QUESTION OF BEAUTY

Are you, my dear, a sloth,
agnostic of appearance?
Maybe your self's a ghost
and you depend on your clothes.
Your beauty, inherent
or of workmanship a boast?

PANTHEON

Whose slaves are we and the world?
Maya's
Dreams of tomorrows
children:
twirl with the Milky Way,
Vishnu,
feast on wine and bread,
Jesus,
and die and die and die
Buddha,
among the stones and sand and stars.
Allah....

AT YOUR GATE

Be careful! There's a charmer
who's smiling at your gate.
He may be selling dharma,
he may be selling hate.
It may be he's a Witness
or one with a hit list.
He may be selling makeup,
he may be selling plates.
Or you may be a Jacob
who's wrestling with your fate.

ADAM AND EVE AND ENTROPY

But Newton's
apple tree
took root,
bore fruit
as infinity's
axle tree.

My universe
comprises
my consciousness.
But for a part
of the heart
of time
we entwined--
your universe
and mine
embraced,
shared space.

Your-near-my-far
showed no gulf
until time--
diamond mine
studded with stars--
time -- swallowed itself.
Our universe,
our consciousness,
exited existence.

But galaxies
of progeny
expanded eternity.

COMMUNION

God gave us our nakedness,
the bulge and curves
that enmuse and then infuse
the poet's words.
And so, as now we embrace
infinity,
I don't ask you to undress
virginity
but request you to address
divinity.

In a Day of Spring

Spring is a season of beauty
It comes after the dry winter
To remove all the dryness of nature
And make happy the nature.
Spring is the charming season of nature
It is called the king of all seasons
In this season,
The entire nature makes her so beautiful
The beauty is not possible to explain in words
In a day of spring,
I was walking through the open field
New leaves and flowers grown on the trees
The flowers spread their fragrance
That blows my mind
Many types of birds flying in the sky
If I could be one of the birds
I would fly in the sky! and 
Had gone through many new places
By exploring the beauty of nature.



Don Bormon is a student of grade 8 in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.  

Love of Family 


A family is a sacred bond, 
A love that always strong. 
In a moment of joy and sorrow, 
They will be there for you.


A place to feel safe and secure,
A love that always endures.
A bond that will never break, 
A love that will always be great.



Wazed Abdullah is a student of grade 8 in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.