Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • The Hatch * Cat S. Chen
  • "breathlessness," by Eva Papasoulioti
  • "Dessert Island," by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • "Waystation," by Sonny Rane
  • "[after]" by LeRoy Gorman
  • "The Horse Who Gave Birth to the First Car" by Rachel Rodman

• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: Succeeding

2023 came and went in a blur. Another year full of reading amazing speculative poetry. Every issue I read thousands of poems and have to narrow it all down to fit in this little magazine (a difficult task). As our membership has grown, so has the volume of submissions. While it makes getting an acceptance into Star*Line more difficult, it also illustrates a great strength in the rising popularity of specpo. This pleases me greatly! And today more and more venues are publishing speculative poetry. To me, this means that your voices are being heard, that people care about poetry, and that interest continues to grow. As a community we are succeeding. And there’s so much wonderful poetry it’s impossible to read it all.

Our 45th year has come and gone and it makes me wonder what other amazing things the SFPA will be able to accomplish moving forward into the future. A huge thank you to all of our executive committee, guest editors, volunteers, and of course our members. We couldn’t do it without you!

—Jean-Paul L. Garnier, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"The Hatch," by Cat S. Chen

When the Hatch appeared at my bedside,
I had one hour to choose
Three stations my Hatch would lead to,
Fixed coordinates never to move.

Place One I chose my grandmother’s house,
For months we had weekly teas.
Then one day she died suddenly
And a stranger took over the lease.

Place Three I found a stretch of island beach
To feel the calming breeze.
For a year I dug my toes into sand before
It was claimed by rising seas.

Then my Hatch awoke with a cackle,
Breaking its silence to say,
Stranger’s lawn, battlefield, or drowning
—where will you go today?

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"breathlessness," by Eva Papasoulioti

one by one, we uploaded our
consciousness
advertisements insisted
endless
bodies are overrated, full
of aches and anguish and needs
in the cloud we wouldn’t sleep
anymore
we wouldn’t eat or drink or be
out of breath
the clouds, we wouldn’t feel
anymore
we would become timeless
we would be free
all day long
tireless
to work

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"Dessert Island," by David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Gretel recognized the old woman
when her raft drifted nearer,
but she’d grown, filled out,
maybe.… “Your brother?”
it was him or me, she thought
“Didn’t make it.”

He’d have liked the cool spring
of chocolate milk,
the rum-ball tree,
its trunk dark chocolate,
its fronds lime sugar;
the shells scattered about
were Turkish delight,
the tiny crabs crawling
up and down the tree,
hard candy shells
with creamy centers,
but the sand was just sand.

It was hot as hell,
and the sand burned her feet,
yet the candy didn’t melt,
what was that about?
She caught speculative looks
from the witch,
who must have been sick
almost to death of sweets.

The raft, already furred
with crystals of pink sugar,
the hardest thing around,
a split board, and
who dropped off first.

No refrigeration,
she ate all she could,
crabs finished the rest,
and it was sugar
morning noon and night;
weeks went by.

She was going mad,
the crabs had lost their tang,
she couldn’t stand more sugar,
and was losing weight again,
on the horizon a sail:
quickly climb the tree,
wave her shirt like a fool,
a demented fool,
and a hungry one.

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"Waystation," by Sonny Rane

He drew synovial fluid from my knee
Emptied the syringe into his mouth
He swished the fluid around like it was a fine French wine
Waited for an aftertaste in vain

I charged him half a pint of blood
Old-school but no less delightful
He thought this meant I’d want his name
But I assured him it was nothing personal

Right around midnight, a biker stopped by
Looking to trade some light gastric juices
Need to fill up my tank, he said
Apocalypse is on my tail

Ten years later and I’m still standing
Knees could sure use a break, though

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"[after]" by LeRoy Gorman

after
the bomb
everyone goes
to Mars
&
there
is
peace
on Earth

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"The Horse Who Gave Birth to the First Car" by Rachel Rodman

Good hips, they told her after the excruciating birth.
Good womb.
Good girl.
This colt did not nurse from her; it was provided other food.
Small mercies.
She watched him race, faster, faster, in a meadow that was not her meadow,
in the adjacent world that his arrival had created.
Horsepower.
Beep, vroom.
Horsepower!
She hurt inside; after a time, she turned back to her grass.
Her colt’s name, they said, was “Progress.”
For weeks, she grazed.
Hurt inside: all ripped open—hard angles, where hair hadn’t been; two lights,
where the eyes weren’t.
She remembered …
Hurt.
Sputnik!, they said anguishedly, in advance of the next foaling season.
The Russians cannot win, they said, casting racing, rabid glances between
her and the sky.
Good hips.
Good womb.
Good girl.

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * Jean-Paul Garnier
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Colleen Anderson
• From the Small Press * John Reinhart, Lisa Timpf
• Stealth SF * “The Gloves Come Off, Part II” * Denise Dumars
• SpecPo Publishing * Interview with Tonya R. Moore * Jean-Paul Garnier
• Xenopoetry * un corito negro/a dark little chorus * Juan M. Pérez

Art

• Patience * Dante Luiz

Poetry

• New Variant * Gerri Leen
• Cold * Sarah Cannavo
• [Light glances off …] * Mahaila Smith
• How Asteroids Die * Herb Kauderer
• Voltage Meter * Mary Cresswell
• Human Oversight * Herb Kauderer
• [radio array …] * Lauren McBride
• Back from the Dead * Joy Yin
• The Existence of Dragons * Sarah Jackson
• [artificial intelligence] * Joshua St. Claire
• Bat-minton * Adele Gardner
• Twin Worlds * Anna Cates
• rose quartz satellite * lae astra
• A Black Hole Is a Melting Pot … * Pedro Iniguez
• New Planet Landscape * Ken Poyner
• [your planet ’s not gone—] * Richard Magahiz
• Block Party * Benjamin Whitney Norris
• The Hatch * Cat S. Chen
• [Bad credit financing] * Randall Andrews
• Continuation * Lisa Timpf
• A Non-Denominational Great Old Ones Worship Service* Aaron Knuckey
• breathlessness * Eva Papasoulioti
• Taste of Sunset * Beth Cato
• Intergalactic Renthead * Melissa Ridley Elmes
• Cotton Mather * F. J. Bergmann
• Lydia Villa-Komaroff (b. 1947) * Jessy Randall
• Meanwhile in the New Atlantis … * Howard V. Hendrix
• The Creature of the Black Lagoon Is a FB Friend * Richard Magahiz
• [homecoming] * Ngô Bình Anh Khoa
• Vitality * Benjamin Whitney Norris
• Numbers on Doors: 003 * Yuliia Vereta
• In Deep Time * Anthony Bernstein
• Umbilicus cosmicum * JM Cyrus
• How to Duel on New Tombstone * Lisa Timpf
• Experiment Ultra * Fiona Perry
• Angelic Voices * DJ Tyrer
• The universe next door is just ok * Rebecca Bennett
• Cause and Effect * Emily McIntyre
• lunar lament * Lorraine Schein
• Who * Anna Cates
• The Whippoorwills in the Hills * DJ Tyrer
• The Trees Are Made of Metal * Caleb Edmondson
• Choosing Our New Earth * Lauren McBride
• The Sum of My Parts * Colleen Anderson
• River Sticks * Devan Barlow
• Death, Life, and the Economy of Hyphae * Jordan Hirsch
• When a Nose Grows Too Long * Brian U. Garrison
• When I Am Asked About My Personal Relationship With Religion * Jenna Le
• The Fate of Seven Ark Ships (and Those Left Behind) * Jason P. Burnham
• Food for Thought * John H. Dromey
• Unwind * A J Dalton
• weird shrimp from canada * Elis Montgomery
• The Strange Remains * G. O. Clark
• Reflections of a Time-Traveler * T. R. Jones
• Surface Tension * A J Dalton
• Un-haunted * Roger Dutcher
• chrysalis of teeth * Marisca Pichette
• The race of light and sound * Matthew Wilson
• Spreadsheet Scrutiny * John H. Dromey
• Lapidescence * Brian Hugenbruch
• Nova * James Arthur Anderson
• [a letter] * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• no price too high * Yuliia Vereta
• [Dear SFPA] * Debby Feo
• Elemental Scales * Ruth Berman
• [OCD-afflicted vampire …] * Alan Ira Gordon
• [our folly in flight—] * Howard V. Hendrix
• [migrating dragons] * F. J. Bergmann
• Dessert Island * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Crone * Jacqueline West
• Do the Math or Who ’s for Supper? * Gavin Kayner
• What I Could Be * Valerie Hunter
• Pioneer Cemetery on Mars * Howard V. Hendrix
• Waystation * Sonny Rane
• Love Through a Telescope * Jon Wesick
• [after] * LeRoy Gorman
• Elemental Shamanic Shuddering * Gary Every
• The Horse Who Gave Birth to the First Car * Rachel Rodman
• Dragon Dusk * Sarah Cannavo
• Death Cheats at Cards * Mary Soon Lee
• [ghost apple] * Greg Schwartz
• Thanks to dark energy * Richard Magahiz
• SZAD1001.ai * Sara Omer
• It Wasn’t as If … * Anna Cates