Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • I, Robin, Being of Sound Mind by Robin Helweg-Larsen
  • Chronovisor Wanted by Robert Borski
  • mecha visits little tokyo by S. Qiouyi Lu

• Full Table of Contents

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Dragons & Rayguns

Welcome to a new year of Star*Line again, another circuit around our closest star completed, with a veritable feast of speculative poetry served up for you in these pages.

In this issue we have a different kind of front cover, a photograph rather than an illustration. Pictured therein is a dragon, an Eagle Wyrm, created as a one-of-a-kind objet d’art by artist Calyn McLeod. On the back cover I have asked Calyn to provide an ad through which you can procure some of her beasties if you like. The ad shows three of her creatures, the last being a rather winsome dragonfly-winged dragon!

I hope you enjoy the poems in this issue. They are all works of love!

—Vince Gotera, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"I, Robin, Being of Sound Mind," by Robin Helweg-Larsen

I, Robin, being of sound mind, declare
the Cryonics Institute shall have my corpse.
That’s where I’ll rest, if I can get shipped there,
no matter how friends stare, family gawps.
“I,” “corpse” and “rest” are contradictory, true,
because we’re into science-frontier realms
where problem-solving causes problems new,
where human thought both helps and overwhelms.
Limitless lifespan, or apocalypse?
Both feasible as we reach out through space.
Cryonics is a ticket for both trips . . .
or none at all, if humans lose our race.
Enjoy this puzzle-path, solve it and thrive.
Drive to arrive alive. Strive to survive.

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"Chronovisor Wanted," by Robert Borski

Duties include being in charge of all timelines,
with the desirable applicant able to parse
not only standard Julian-Gregorian conflicts,
but having broad-based experience
in chronohavoc and paradox management—
you will, for example, have to know how
to doctor such meta-disruptive events
as “butterfly swatting” or ancestral retrocide.

Vacation and paid holidays off flexible,
but you may not pre-take or bank more
than a single futurum in advance,
and there is no additional compensation
for astro-temporal corrections. (We are
still litigating the 445 days of 46 BCE.)

Also, if you’re a member of any disjunctive
or collapsed timeline, while we encourage
you to apply, due to previous mishaps,
the background of any candidate named
Schicklgruber or Booth will be given
extra scrutiny.

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"mecha visits little tokyo," by S. Qiouyi Lu

I was born steel-reinforced
into mother serenity:
the growl of a metal-frame
mecha waiting to respond
to my exhalations

fetal in a chrome womb
throbbing bass heartbeat

reverse
drive

palimpsest smog and blue
gives way to the haze of distance
outlining sun-faded skylines

I am not a monster here
not a split-brained beast
who finds peace only
in a two-ton death machine

my mind’s skinner godzillas
become shadowboxed,
snakes clutched claw-strong
in my harpy talons

here, after I pull up curbside
and park mecha with two hours
on the meter, headlights winking out

I can be anyone
kowtowing sumimasen

little tokyo, float my world
into an ukiyo mask of anonymity

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Dragons & Rayguns * Vince Gotera
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
• From the Small Press • Marge Simon
• Stealth SF: Print’s Still Not Dead • Denise Dumars

Art

• Saucers Over Moon • Allen Koszowski
• Retro Android • Boris Grann and Neil Strahl
• The Battle • Christina Sng
• Evening Breakfast • Marge Simon
• Hydra • Jack Foo
• After the robot apocalypse • Boris Grann & Neil Strahl
• Stairway to the Bat Galaxy • Denny E. Marshall
• Bad Robot • Denny E. Marshall
• Where Sister Once Was • R. Mac Jones

Poetry

• [orbiting alone] • Joshua Gage
• Bad Landing • Harris Coverley
• Of fairy tales— • David F. Shultz
• Cryonics and Rejuvenation • Robin Helweg-Larsen
• Devilish Incarnations • Bruce Boston
• Sci(na)ku • Herb Kauderer
• Faster on Six Feet • Matthew Wilson
• Above the Clouds • Deborah L. Davitt
• [my late brother] • Gary Davis
• [scorched earth] • Lisa Timpf
• Meta-Paean • Chris Bullard
• Surreal Agenda • Bruce Boston
• You’re Wasting Your Time • John Grey
• On the Edge of Forever • Josh Pearce
• Under the terms of victory • Lee Garratt
• I, Robin, Being of Sound Mind • Robin Helweg-Larsen
• the late prince • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Schrödinger’s Tardigrades • Dawn Vogel
• [!@#%~&*] • LeRoy Gorman
• No Living Animals • Matthew Wilson
• [Zombie Night] • Lisa Timpf
• [re-entering] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [alien space probes] • Denny E. Marshall
• Evening Breakfast • Marge Simon
• [runaway bride …] • Deborah P Kolodji
• Desire • Juan Perez
• [hang time draws] • Lisa Timpf
• Trans-Universal • Cas Blomberg
• How to Imagine Barnard’s Star b • Mary Soon Lee
• [cannibal convention] • LeRoy Gorman
• Bright Lady’s Interstellar Saga • Gregg Chamberlain
• Best Friend • Matthew Wilson
• [last full moon] • Greer Woodward
• Afterlife • Gene Twaronite
• [alien hovercraft] • Deborah P Kolodji
• [head sore …] • Greg Fewer
• [Beast never learned] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [time travel roulette] • LeRoy Gorman
• Fall Colors • Kurt Luchs
• The Dragonfly Lover • Russell Hemmell
• The Marriage of Light and Distraction • Gerri Leen
• [scratching at the door] • Greg Fewer
• Night of the Storm • Christina Sng
• [Methane spikes on Mars] • Greer Woodward
• [I am here] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Chronovisor Wanted • Robert Borski
• a sword I did • Richard Magahiz
• [wildebeest time travel] • LeRoy Gorman
• [first AI invents] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [he stabs …] • Gary Davis
• [the ash from the roof …] • Robin Wyatt Dunn
• Humpty Dumpty • Mary Soon Lee
• [galactic way station] • Greer Woodward
• [Earth jersey] • Deborah P Kolodji
• Black Holes • Frank Coffman
• New Jet Car • Lauren McBride
• [Sotheby’s Lot 9] • Greer Woodward
• [time travel accident] • Deborah P Kolodji
• Reset • Frank Coffman
• One Person’s Madness Is Another’s … • J. J. Steinfeld
• Blue Mood • Gretchen Tessmer
• [I swipe real hard] • Gary Davis
• Contingency • Aaron Knuckey
• Spectral Color • R Mac Jones
• [delightful party] • Marcus Vance
• [learnt a new language] • Davian Aw
• honey • D. A. Xiaolin Spires
• Cybernetics • Alessio Zanelli
• [it was a brook …] • Simon Perchik
• [eggs over sleazy] • LeRoy Gorman
• Selfies • G. O. Clark
• mecha visits little tokyo • S. Qiouyi Lu
• [Emy’s doll] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Adrift • T. R. Jones
• [a female human] • Susan Burch
• History Class • Matthew Wilson
• Amphibious Heavy Metal • Gary Every
• [6 months] • Susan Burch
• Burning Worlds • Matthew Wilson
• Pilgrimage to Mandai Sky Columbarium • Ian Goh
• [banned from another] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Wolf Moon • Cas Blomberg
• The Thief • Sarah Grey
• Childish Fears • Matthew Wilson
• Ask Darwin • David Barber
• Ghost Ship • DJ Tyrer
• Dating Has its Hazards • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [time travel weight loss clinic] • LeRoy Gorman
• [time travel therapy] • Deborah P Kolodji
• Future Visions • Colleen Anderson
• A Magic Trick • Gretchen Tessmer
• Trinity Alps Giant Salamander • Richard Stevenson
• [what’s the mystery] • Susan Burch
• Counterfeit Coins • Matthew Wilson