common imports
By Steve Piazza

maybe i heard you talking
last night
murmurs wafting perhaps like attentive winds 
intent as sleep

or maybe i just summoned
a tender promise gracing childhood
clearly understood then like wishful thinking
accurate or not
only today vacillating and
lying across the now existing horizon
taut as the desperation of time and commitments

tales of generosity and sacrifice go on
so we’re told
morning to night
vital as breath and love and purpose
yet living real life in the moment
still becomes the excuse of choice
to reside carefree  in the moment
as if occasional involuntary inklings about
which skin in the game
and even which game for that matter
defy the odds to convince
that enough skin has already been wagered (there isn't)
or that all the games get addressed (they aren’t)
providing those transitory comforts that 
everything will work out just fine anyway

no worries 
being happy
life going on

for who, though

platitude one: what gets forgotten is easy to forget
platitude two: a working system needs no fixing 
platitude three: it’s been said enough so it must be 
rectitude yet: even in the worst of truths and secrets
there is something left unknown

meanwhile directly
time’s befores and afters scale each moment’s lasting
somewhere and another
so
hearts adverse and lacking bind
with those that freely choose to give
extending reaches undenied

Retrograding Gatorade
By Avery Douglas

The cosmos is spinning slowly…

Backwards seeming
Like all of reality is possibly dreaming,
A nightmare some would say
But a lesson from the universe being the true way,

The time is now to reap what you sow
From these lessons and pains you shall grow,
As planets spin backwards
Forget not we are simply actors,

Bound to the materials of Earth
Destined to realize our worth
Forget not the pure soul you were destined at birth
Seek, and may you find genuine mirth;

Cleanse thy soul
Of the egotistical role
For the lessons of retrograde
Will not merely wither away

These lessons are the karmic curses
Laid upon Earth by the planet’s universes,
Once the patterns of the Macrocosm are learned
All thy soul’s concerns will be burned;

Learn to live in the here and now
Naturally thy heart will find the Tao,
Seek guidance through the stars
Understand the meaning of your Mercury, Venus and Mars;

Welcome the energies of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
May they fortify the awareness of thy soul’s tune,
Near the depths of Pluto may our desires reach
Seek deep within and allow intuition to teach;

We are creatures of the organic cosmos
Eating the dirt of past soul’s compost,
Understand the natural order
Expand from this Earthly border,

For you are a soul meant to bloom
Spawned from the darkness of the cosmic womb
Lessons of retrograde may they not fright
Find unity, balance, and third-eye sight;

As the cosmos spins backwards
Remember we are the soul masters
And retrograde is simply a scheme
Undressing karma’s egotistical dream.

Nicaragua
By Anonymous

The begrudged busses make little concessions,
no option, wait
at a liberation, at a stone, at an edge.
Vanishing into the pool of a volcano 
crusaders continue with a normal day.

While the influential divide a population,
corn tortillas swell,
street dogs jostle crumbs,
taxies, a little current, circulate,
bull horns announce, 
bells ring.

Civility, the fruit of the community 
flowers for Managua, Leon, Bluefields, Chinandega, Matagalpa

Peace, like a distant uncle, drops by to drink fresco and rest.