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LOVER’S
KNOT
It has been a long time.  Winter opens
row on row of lace edging the fields
with frost’s sharp furbelows.  The fences
even the plainest, turn ornate.  Yield
to this season what I will, my life,
I meet you still in gardens of the snow
grief’s melting tracery a silver knife
left by the summer path.  Your cold hands
 
burn through this ice.  Your children
wheel again, running the glinted road
where wild birds dart, your face in their dark eyes.
Hand in mine, voice in the dark, once you said
time braided: nothing lost, just slipped beneath
a twist to tie the roses, alba, damask
from the hard winds.  All comes back again
snow’s melting filigree, that lust
 
changeable, new again, your breath
thawing my skin, death just
the door we open to a place
where the bed is narrow yet we still embrace.
 
NOT FROM ARCTURUS
 
Crossing the high meadow
you found lilies,  the ones
I most like, a whole galaxy
of hot orange suns, fiesta
of passion
where for lifetimes nothing else
is so complex, so open, so untroubled.
 
Life isn’t like this.  What can we share of the grace
of lanterns
flowers complete & single
as falling stars, a flash
of dust for wishing
sudden, beautiful, unlooked for,
 
true.  Self-conscious love is
of all things the most trite.  I tell you,
my life, we won’t break our hearts
on this.  Time goes.  The rain
falls again on my cabin.  Far away
on Arcturus, perhaps, it doesn’t matter
in whose arms we wake.
 
IF THIS WORLD WERE THE BOOK
When I came back from the far country
your gold beneath my tongue, yes
I fell again to loving
all the first things.  I saw
 
through my half open door
the white lilacs glowing, entire
tangled constellations of lovers
clustered on each branch, and
 
through the windows of your body
my dear hell or that lost map
to heaven.   I surrender, my life.
Stay me here with plain words.
 
If this world were the book
I have been reading
over & over I was only
looking for that turned & returned
 
story: lovers, gold, the simple rain
my body the page you print yourself upon.
-KATHY EPLING   when considering that the minimum wage was 60 pesos at the beginning of this administration." However, the CAR
The Positive Fiscal Impact of Refugees 
A study by the Department of Health and Human Services found that refugees brought in $63 billion
more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost.
The draft report contradicted a central argument made by advocates of deep cuts in refugee totals.
Trump’s chief policy adviser, Stephen Miller, asserted that continuing to welcome refugees is too costly and
raises concerns about terrorism.
Advocates for refugees say they are a major benefit to the United States, paying more in taxes than they
consume in public benefits, and filling jobs in service industries that others will not. But research
documenting their fiscal upside — never publicly released- prepared for a report mandated by Trump 
never made its way to the White House. Some of those proponents believe the report was suppressed.
The internal study found that refugees “contributed an estimated $269.1 billion in revenues to all levels of
government” between 2005 and 2014 through the payment of federal, state and local taxes. “Overall, this
report estimated that the net fiscal impact of refugees was positive over the 10-year period, at $63 billion.”
White House officials said those conclusions were illegitimate and politically motivated, and were
disproved by the final report issued by the agency, which asserts that the per-capita cost of a refugee is
higher than that of an American.
The three-page report the agency ultimately submitted does just that, using government data to compare
the costs of refugees to Americans and making no mention of revenues contributed by refugees.
Stephen Miller, one of the most staunchly anti-immigrant officials remaining in the White House, reportedly
pushed for a cap on admitting refugees to the United States as low as 15,000, while Homeland Security
officials recommended a limit of 40,000.
When presented with the draft report, a number of administration officials who work on refugee-related
issues were sent an internal email, that read "senior leadership is questioning the assumptions used to
produce the report," and another that said Miller had requested a meeting to discuss the report.
Apparently Miller personally intervened in discussions over the refugee cap to ensure that only the costs of
refugees, and not their contributions, were taken into consideration.
Refugees are often considered an economic burden for the countries that take them in, but a 2016 study
conducted by UC Davis with the United Nations World Food Program indicated that refugees receiving aid
— especially in the form of cash — can give their host country’s economy a substantial boost.
The researchers found that these economic benefits significantly exceeded the amount of the donated aid.
A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research last summer estimated the average
cost of resettling a refugee in the
United States between 1990- 2014
at $15,000, including background
checks, housing, English lessons
and job training. However, the study
indicates that within eight years of
their arrival, adult refugees begin
paying more in taxes than they
receive in benefits.
Moreover, by the time adult
refugees have lived in the United
States for 20 years, the evidence
suggests they will have paid an
average of $21,000 more in taxes
than in benefits received from all
levels of government since
arrival.
Why Do They Want Our Jobs?
A Mexican on minimum wage has to work 24 hours and 31 minutes per day in order to be able to afford
basic food supplies, according to a new university study –  up from 21 hours and 13 minutes at the beginning of
Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential term.
The Interdisciplinary Analysis Center (CAM) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico reaches the damning
conclusion in a new report entitled:
"Mexico 2018: Another social and politic defeat of the working class; the wage rises that were born dead."
Economics faculty members Luis Lozano Arredondo and David Lozano Tovar point out that the last time
Mexico's minimum wage was enough to cover basic needs and still have a little left was in December 1987: "Since
then, there has not been any possibility to recover the purchase power."
In 1987, only 4 hours and 53 minutes of work were needed to satisfy basic needs. That means the worker had 19
hours and 7 minutes left for personal activities, including rest and leisure time.
In October 2017, the minimum wage in Mexico was 80.04 mexican pesos (about US$4.15) for an eight-hour labor
day, but the price of the daily 'Recommended Food Basket' (CAR) is of 245.34 pesos (US$12.70).
This means the loss of purchase power between December 16, 1987 and October 26, 2017 stands at a
staggering 80.8 percent.
Before this year's minimum wage increase to 88.36 pesos (US$4.59), a Mexican could only buy 32.62 percent of
the Recommended Food Basket. However, the cost of basic supplies such as eggs, avocado, liquified gas and
corn tortillas have since rocketed by between 24 and 34 percent.
President Enrique Peña Nieto has celebrated the wage increase, describing it as "no minor adjustment, especially
price has also risen by 44.24 pesos (US$2.30) since 2015.
The study blames neoliberal policies for promoting a situation in which there aren't enough working hours in the
day to satisfy basic needs.
"Those who have allowed this –  such as businesspeople, governments, political parties, unions
under the employer's control – have never been interested in the working class, nor in their lives
or necessities of the human beings we are."                                                                                             
   telesurtv.net
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