Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes
  
• Editor's Choice Poems
  • "All Souls," by Jennifer Crow
  • "Conduit of Ginger and Starlight," by Theresa C. Gaynord
  • [summertime], by Gabriel Smithwilson
  • "Wings," by Kira Lyonet Collins
  • "NASA's Golden Record," by Catherine Khaperska
    
• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: April Showers, May Flowers, June...

Here I was, twiddling my thumbs, cruising at my day job, busy with family in the evenings, typing poems for the odd event, Star*Lining on the side, when BOOM! in the dribs and drabbles of April and the clouds and mud of Maine, somewhere a wormhole opened in the cosmos and these meteor showers rained submissions upon submissions upon your humble editor. Wow! Enough meteoric iron to smelt a host of swords. I’m honored and busy. When I compare the uptick in submissions, it correlates nicely with the uptick in ticks in Maine this time of year, which has steadily risen since issue 49.1. Compared to two issues ago, I received twice as many submissions for this issue, and this issue in your hands contains the best international representation of the issues I’ve edited. Doublewow.

And all those submissions arrived ahead of the announcement that pay rates are up. A limerick won’t buy you much in liquefied dinosaurs, but as they say, it’s better than a poke in the eye in zero gravity. Keep 'em coming! (The poems! Not the pokes in the eye...)

—John Reinhart, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"All Souls," by Jennifer Crow

Any hour can be a witching hour
if you want it badly enough. Spirits
linger, nothing better to do
as nights lengthen and grow cold.
Laughter like dried leaves crackling
underfoot, a breath of woodsmoke
curling through the room, memories
as sharp and sweet as fresh cider,
all of it summons them
from the between places where the dead
send unheard messages and cast
shadows that never quite reach
the eye. Peripheral souls
follow paths of branching
possibilities to our bedsides
where they crouch, shiver
for our attention and fade with dawn.
One day, we too will be ghosts
watching over someone’s shoulder
and trying to knock objects
off shelves to catch the future’s
divided attention.

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"Conduit of Ginger and Starlight," by Theresa C. Gaynord

Old Widow Chen, conduit between soy sauce and void,
guardian of the topmost floor, smiles into her bowl
and stirs the universe with the same spoon
she uses for congee. The dragons downstairs keep frying;
the Buddha downstairs keeps smiling blessings.
Only she knows the sky is also hungry,
and that every dumpling she seals tonight
will one day orbit a distant, astonished sun.

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[summertime], by Gabriel Smithwilson

summertime
mermaid drinking lemonade
on the rocks

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"Wings," by Kira Lyonet Collins

Hold me until I again want to be held, kiss me until

the pink sky flits with multi-colored dragonflies, and

a woman in a gossamer gown ascends a gilded staircase

slowly and without pause until, in the shadows where she emits a glow,

she spreads her thighs to a sweet and tender darkness.

The light, the secrets, and a keyhole, to wisdom and daring.

Who can say her name? Only the underwater creatures

of her past, and the singing-sighing windblown pines of her future.

But I’ve heard it said that flying is much like singing,

once you find your wings.

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"NASA's Golden Record," by Catherine Khaperska

Put the record on, let’s dance
There’s music and there’s us

Hello, Bonjour, Привіт, Ciao

We’ve sent out laughter
On a little circle vinyl sheet

Were they alone?
Was it natural?
Were they manufacturing joy in a soundproof room?

Was the microphone
The only one who heard it
And if so
Was it real?

They sent the sound of wind into space
We’ve sent sounds to penetrate
The space which has never heard
The likes of
Anything, really

And how do you send sounds
Of a kiss
How the measurement of the sound must be intimate
Will the child remember the feel of their mother’s love
The feel of her lips on their skin
Or the camera, microphone
And the tall faceless person leaning in close
And how many times was it repeated
To get the perfect take
The intimate recording of an intimate moment
Did it take all the intimacy away?

In the pursuit of discovery
We sent a capsule of history to the stars
Deciding what mattered in the grand scheme of time
Audio files titled
“The first tools”
“Wild dog”
“Fire”, “speech”
What would this sound like
To one who has never set foot near here

I wonder what’s been omitted
We try to put our best foot forward
Make a good impression of our civilization
To those yet unknown
And they are still unknown
For the sounds and memories we’ve flown high above
Remain untouched since the 70s, floating, flying

At this point does it even work anymore?

Is it still us?

Maybe it’s symbolic of decay
As we’ve compiled our humanity and sent it away

And perhaps we are alone amid the stars
Would it be such a tragedy
If we must turn to one another to succeed
And forget how we’ve looked
For signs of life so far
From where
We are

Progress isn’t reinventing the wheel
But ours is out in space
A little box of human
For whoever finds it

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * John Reinhart
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Brian U. Garrison
• From the Small Press * Howard V. Hendrix, Art Holcomb, Herb Kauderer, Lisa Timpf
• Sealth SF * Didja Miss Me? * Denise Dumars
• SpecPo Publishing * Interview with Interview with Cislyn Smith and Stephen Granade * Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Art

• Earth 9 * Shikhar Dixit
• Two Ships in the Night * Denny E. Marshall

Poetry

• Common Search Term Autofills of the Apocalypse * Jason Burnham
• after the bombs * Crystal Sidell
• A Trip to the Gorgon Salon * Robert Frazier
• Starstruck * Faith Allington
• Finally, the Metamorph * Sarah Tuttle
• I Prophesy * Caleb Call
• someone to talk to * Herb Kauderer
• [summertime] * Gabriel Smithwilson
• All Souls * Jennifer Crow
• Assembling Quarks * R. Gerry Fabian
• The Robot Coming to Life * Ken Poyner
• Wings * Kira Lyonet Collins
• [an ostrich fern …] * Joshua St. Claire
• [first fiddlehead …] * M. Frost
• My Last Robot * Martin Elster
• Sparking Joy * Ian Willey
• Fishing the Skies * Deborah L. Davitt
• When the Ocean Began to Rewrite Maps * Veny Okoye
• Universe * Erick Phillips Garske
• The Devil’s Villanelle * Paul Burgess
• Food for Thought * Fatimah Akanbi
• [shiva] * Greg Schwartz
• Star Dragon * Mary Soon Lee
• Heart Dragons * Teresa Milbrodt
• In Soundless Space * Lauren McBride
• The Ode Ends * Hibah Shabkhez
• Things That Can Go Wrong on a Colonistsicle Ship * Timons Esaias
• Alchemical Stage 3: Separation * Colleen Anderson
• An Experiment with Time * Kathleen Bryson
• [five-sun system …] * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Kid Caterpillar Decides Maybe … * Nicholas De Marino
• Astronomer Son * Robert Borski
• Word Wreck * Lisa Timpf
• [moonless night] * DJ Tyrer
• Watching You * Corinne Hughes
• Report from the Last Library on Earth * Veny Okoye
• Conduit of Ginger and Starlight * Theresa C. Gaynord
• The Cosmology of Kindness * Adam Robinson
• NASA’s Golden Record * Catherine Khaperska
• Children of the Lost Horizons * Robert Frazier
• I am the Castle * Sadee Bee
• Wentworth Street * Lynne Sargent
• 1-800-TOW-HOME * Randall Andrews
• The Lost Cities of Sarah * Joshua Ginsberg
• Indicators * L.A. Hyland
• Thousands of Roses * Devan Barlow
• Philippians 4:13 * Katherine Sanger
• [sutures pop] * D.A. Xiaolin Spires
• Splish Splash * Nat Yonce
• Revelations From the Unkempt Office … * Jason Burnham
• Speculative Love Poem * Pixie Bruner
• Neodymium. Indecipherable. But human. * Richard Magahiz
• Alien Mined * AJ Dalton
• [statuesque …] * Nicholas De Marino
• Black and White * Mary Soon Lee
• Ask the Tree * Jacqueline West
• Portrait in Vacuum * Wendy Van Camp
• inch x inch * Yuliia Vereta
• Grandpa’s Happy * Gerri Leen
• On the Backs of Monarch Wings * Mahaila Smith
• [where we once …] * Alper Ghuchlu
• [grasping at straws] * NgÔ Bình Anh Khoa
• Photographs: Animals * Roger Dutcher
• Robo-Crop * John H. Dromey
• Voyager 2 * Pankaj Khemka
• back Space Tripper * Marge Simon
• An Astronomical Clerihew * Marie Brennan
• [stargazing] * Anna Cates