Cover: Moon digital image Craig Snodgrass
Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: Brian Garrison
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Wyrms & Wormholes: Onward & Outward
When clamorous centaurs thundered
to the rain-pools,
Shattered with their fierce hooves
the silent mirrors
—Mervyn Peake, “When Tiger-Men Sat Their Mercurial Coursers”
It’s a busy time of year, what with awards nominations and the churning out of multiple publications near-simultaneouly. And Spring beckons enticingly, generally in order to begin raining heavily once I am a mile and a half from home with the dog, who is afraid of thunder.
And it’s the year of major politicking—and every season has contained its own spectacular, unbelievable, intolerable disruptions.
I want a scene / where a cop car gets pooped on by a pterodactyl.
—Danez Smith, “Dinosaurs in the Hood,” Poetry, December 2014
But spec poets are also busy, providing a wealth of wonders, herein displayed.
Out of the drab and artificial ground
A horse with wings of scarlet,
and pale flowers …
—Mervyn Peake, “Victoria Station. 6.58 p.m.”
Bloomingly yours,
—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor
Editor's Choice Poems
"The Day We Landed," by David Barber
This could be the day; this heave of foliage,
pale and towering in the pearly light,
the same sky, emptying itself of cloud,
life, like arrowheads in the air above.
We first set foot on such a day as this.
Remember, we sometimes say, we old ones,
at a graveside, or sick bed, or wary
of the darting children whose home this is,
how lost we voyagers felt that first day
and reluctant to let go; remember
all debate ending when my wife beckoned
to the daughter who would never grow old,
their footprints fresh in the sunrise grass,
as if a promise had been made, or broken,
while the scent of a new world drowned us all.
"Londinium After Midnight," by Denise Dumars
Slit
with seax—
the purple welling
again
after the slide
the slip,
of the blade
a lick, the slick
swift to slow
in the slush
and the cold,
Iceni ice,
a garnet gem
to glisten
in gibbous beam,
then given
to lap
the sweet
sufficient.
"What Wants Us," by Karolina Fedyk
Hello. We’ve landed safely.
All’s well under the foreign sky.
This new sun is gently pulsing
over landscapes chiseled in salt.
They’ve been made in the image and likeness
of the home I never knew.
Gobi, Mojave, Arizona.
Names as alien as any moon.
But this land can’t be barren, I tell myself.
It pushed out a city for us.
I’ve been trailing its bone-white splendor.
Taking in the hard-won wonders.
Here, water has an unfamiliar taste,
and we can’t walk the sky,
but what does it matter? They say
it’s how it has been. Spires
piercing the stars in our name.
Are you still listening?
I’d hate my first message to be all complaints.
But, moving forth with new winds, I don’t know.
Is this really where we came from,
the dirt swirling by my feet?
It reminds me of places we wouldn’t let be.
I’m waiting for the next ship and hoping
I’ll leave before I forget: that home is
not what we want.
It’s what wants us
before poison and fire.
"made of star stuff," by Christina Sng
made of star stuff
every death
still hurts
"#greenlivesmatter," by Joshua Gage
paper cut
the flesh-colored bandage
bright against her scales
summer vacation
her tentacle lotion
in the ethnic aisle
first day of school
one textbook chapter
on green history
keg stand
a fratboy in greenface
holds her ankles
autumn evening
trick-or-treaters
with fake tentacles
stale coffee
her coworker asks
if she’s green all over
routine traffic stop
the chill of the car hood
beneath her green cheek
“excessive force” acquittal
outside, protester tentacles
squirm in handcuffs
"Lost Flight," by John Philip Johnson
There are no orderly towns pricked in light
below us, no stars pinned to the dark
that is not a sky. Nothing, not even clouds.
All around us, everything is formless and void,
as though dissolved in the steady roar of the engines.
We fly on. Surely the pilots have noticed?
Do they say nothing because there is nothing left to say?
The other passengers seem oblivious.
Erasure presses in upon the skin of our fuselage,
yet we keep doing the things the living do.
Chatting. Sipping coffee. Reading. Making plans.
We laugh and lie to ourselves. We doze.
We think a plethora of days awaits us.
We feel no vertigo; there is no encroaching cold,
no bright light forming in a tunnel ahead of us.
Before oblivion, the edge is subtle.
Meanwhile, we have the cabin lights to guide us.
"Galactic Democracy," by Eric Burke
In the stagnant water
of classroom aquariums,
in the sedimentary strata
of eroded backyards,
the settled remains
of public policy.
In the holographic replacement
they built for our living space,
Dad installs a meat freezer.
Full Table of Contents
Departments
- Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
- SFPA Announcements
- From the Small Press • Denise Dumars, Joshua Gage, John Philip Johnson, Alex Plummer, Diane Severson
- Publishing Speculative Poetry * Tracking Mega-Submissions • Herb Kauderer
- Stealth SF * The Horror, The Horror • Denise Dumars
Art
- Maximum Velocity * Denny E. Marshall
- Eye Still Don’t Know the Title * Denny E. Marshall
- Celestial Orchid * Steve Tomasko
- Funnel Vision * Denny E. Marshall
Poetry
- ‘Star*Line doesn’t include bios, sorry.…’ * P. S. Cottier
- “scent like wet daffodils” * Michelle Muenzler
- The Mercury Rift * Jeanine Webb
- “spring migration” * LeRoy Gorman
- “time tunnel beckons” * Lauren McBride
- Weeds * Ken Poyner
- Never Argue with a Robot * Kendall Evans
- “wondering if ” * Susan Burch
- “after their performance” * Lauren McBride
- “H.A.M.Let v30.16” * Ash Krafton
- “At the onset …” * Ronald A. Busse
- Universe Number Ten * Neal Wilgus
- The Fall * Davian Aw
- American Centaur * Ross Balcom
- “Faerie’s burbs are full” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “they believed in an afterlife” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- National remembrance-day * Matthew Wilson
- Another Elvis Sighting * J. P. Brown
- Philogelos * David Barber
- Pythia Speaks * Jenny Blackford
- Foiled Again * Josh Brown
- for the road * LeRoy Gorman
- The Necromancy Program * Christina Sng
- The Bridge at Tierra Park * Laura Madeline Wiseman
- Mr. Hyde’s Pillow Talk * William John Watkins
- “new sexbot” * Ross Balcom
- “first date” * LeRoy Gorman
- “finally having fun” * Christina Sng
- ApocalypseFail * John Reinhart
- Tyre Swans * P. S. Cottier
- “on 20th birthday” * Herb Kauderer
- My Arean Heritage * Robert Borski
- “knows dry reds” * LeRoy Gorman
- “love in a time machine” * LeRoy Gorman
- “anniversary visit” * Carolyn M. Hinderliter
- The Day We Landed * David Barber
- “spare parts * Deborah P Kolodji
- “midsummer night’s love” * LeRoy Gorman
- Still Life with Chupacabra * Chloe N. Clark
- riddle of the past * Anna Sykora
- “first contact” * Christina Sng
- “These huge bones” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- The Tree * Stephanie M. Wytovich
- Londinium After Midnight * Denise Dumars
- “across the universe” * Alan Ira Gordon
- What Wants Us * Karolina Fedyk
- “made of star stuff ” * Christina Sng
- Colonies * Deborah Davitt
- “a rustle in the field” * LeRoy Gorman
- “tomorrow will return” * Neal Wilgus
- greenlivesmatter * Joshua Gage
- The Hobbit * Mary Soon Lee
- What Sort Of People Do They Think We Are? * David Barber
- Hourglass Figure * Alex Harwood
- “timestream reboot” * Carolyn M. Hinderliter
- “The thrash of white and golden koi” * Terrie Leigh Relf
- Conversations with Household Items * Mary Soon Lee
- “appendage sale” * Susan Burch
- “printing our children” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “local sausage” * LeRoy Gorman
- Reflections * Cislyn Smith
- Ouroboros * Kim L. Neidigh
- Bitch * Soren James
- Lost Flight * John Philip Johnson
- A Visitor from Yuggoth * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Assimilation * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Galactic Democracy * Eric Burke
- Singin’ in the Rain * Robert Borski
- “the moment of change” * John W. Sexton
- “Photons” * J. P. Brown
- there was no invasion * John Reinhart
- “unexpected delay” * Deborah P Kolodji
- “tentacle salute” * William Landis
- Hero * Mary Soon Lee
- Dragon, Bound in Stone * Beth Cato
- God Weather * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Vintage * irving
- “deep-space lothario” * Carolyn M. Hinderliter
- Cotard’s Delusion * Chloe N. Clark
- “new age” * C. R. Harper
- “It’s so cold now” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “vampire children” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “sunset * Christina Sng
- Nameless * Deborah Davitt
- How to Train your Velociraptors * Rohinton Daruwala
- “red apples” * Christina Sng
- “polyped bricks compose” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- “bedtime ritual” * Terrie Leigh Relf
- Cat House on Planet X * Lynette Mejía
- We Know Slickening * Jeanine Webb