Indivisible Issue

Given the ongoing revelations of Neanderthal art and technology, it is difficult to see how we can regard Neanderthals as anything other than the cognitive equals of modern humans.

—Hardy, B.L., Moncel, M., Kerfant, C. et al. Direct evidence of Neanderthal fibre technology and its cognitive and behavioral implications. Sci Rep 10, 4889 (2020).

Ask the young tree
when the day gets pungent with blossoms
whether it is ready and willing
and if the tree says yes
let it start working.
 
The tree will glide the flint’s edge
through skin that bleeds
pale and clear as you cut it
skyward to earthward
then in crueler horizons
high and also low.
 
The skin will tease itself free
revealing its secret inner face
of infinite tendrils.
(The naked sinew of the tree
will taste sweet to the tongue.)
 
Three slim bundles
will strand off brightly
and sing their song of weaving
leading your fingers
whirling toward the river
while your wrist
bends ever toward the mountains
and the womb of your palms
gives birth to new vine
and the new vine’s secret.
We begin and we end
but it needs not be so
 
for the birthing of this vine
into its life of dance and song
does not have to stop
even as it dies into the distance.
So may our birthing
yours and mine
partner ever with our dying
on and on and on
until
 

America eased into 2020 with an environmental emergency. During the endless three and a half years of the Trump Regime, DJT rolled back nearly 80 environmental regulations and the United States hit milestones–record temperatures, record flooding, record fires. February was a constitutional crisis, as DJT was impeached for his role in a (alleged) plan to extort Ukraine to aid in his reelection. March illuminated the disastrous results of ignoring pandemic warnings and failing to adopt universal healthcare. April saw the rumblings of class conflicts, a deepening red-blue divide, fiscal deprivation, and skyrocketing unemployment — a Great Depression for the New Millennium complete with armed militia in boogaloo garb. In May, hundreds of years of living in parallel Americas erupted as Minneapolis law enforcement murdered a man live on social media, sparking worldwide calls for justice reform. As secret police attack peaceful protestors in Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. and DJT finally gets his wall (even though it is only around the Presidential Palace), eighteen countries are raising their voices in support of everyday Americans — “No justice, no peace.”

With all of that turmoil, you would think Americans would be down. But the people will not be silenced — black, Asian, Latino, white, indigenous –the voices that are rising up are united and surprisingly hopeful. We have never been here before.

“The overwhelming majority of the people marching wasn’t [sic] breaking windows, they were trying to break barriers.” — Reverand Al Sharpton

Before this regime, America became complacent. The system was too great a juggernaut to reform, they say. It would take too much disruption, too much time, too much money. We have never been shown in such stark relief how our failure to protect some of your citizens resulted in failing all of our citizens. Our lives are disrupted, milestones stolen from families, trillions of tax dollars bailing out the Biggest Business. What’s next? Where do we go from here? 

For the next issue, we seek work that illuminates the amazing era of change we are entering. Crisis begets clarity, facts are defined, nostalgia is not a tool. How have you changed in 2020? We are entering an era where the the rest of the world is lending a hand because the global community doesn’t want to see the American experiment fail, where the military who swore an oath to the Constitution will honor that oath. How will you honor the next generation? What do you want reality to look like and how are you going to make it so?