Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • Pauli Neutrino Telescope, Antarctica, July 14, 2033 by David Barber
  • Dark Constellations by Ann K. Schwader
  • In the City of Steam by John W. Sexton
  • Ferment by Jane Røken
  • Postcard to a Far-Distant Composer by Robert Frazier

• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: Springtime, Somewhere

Although we are well past the vernal equinox, it snowed yesterday here (Wisconsin). Single-digit °Fahrenheit this very morn. Happy Fimbulwinter! In an alternate universe, we would already have planted peas, spinach, and arugula. Nonetheless, there are wingéd creatures out on the sodden disaster masquerading as a lawn.

Once again, the SFPA awards season is upon us, and therefore we have prodded other publications and presses to advertise herein, not only that our readership may be made aware of the vast and splendiferous gamut of other publishers in the genre, but also that our contributor payments (to say nothing of the cost of printing our lovely color covers) may be supported.

You, too, Reader, can help with this momentous effort: be sure to keep your SFPA membership or subscription current! Recommend Star*Line to your friends. Purchase extra copies as gifts. If media offerings are anything to go by, speculative works are more popular than ever. What we offer in these pages will be welcomed with open arms—or tentacles, as the case may be.

Unscheduled snow, actual snow
the random weather that proves
the inversion of the magic/science ratio.

      —Raymond McDaniel, “Snow Falls on Alternate Metropolis”

Spring is coming
(with apologies to George R.R. Martin).

—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"Pauli Neutrino Telescope, Antarctica, July 14, 2033," by David Barber

Particle-noir winds from Sagittarius
blow through the superconductor array
frozen deep beneath the Ross Ice Shelf,
howling like ghosts in the machine. Outside
it is 30 below. We huddle down
and eavesdrop on physics inventing itself.

Nearly two hundred thousand years ago,
veiled by the Clouds of Magellan, minds
lit candles in the dark; we rise to find
every screen dancing with neutrino spikes;
even the medium is a message
of vast technologies beyond mankind.

For thirty amphetamine hours we chase
the signal star, until a last tsunami
of neutrinos throb out of its stellar heart
as it goes nova. They saw it coming
and wanted to tell somebody something.
We have no idea where to start.

Africa wakened us to life and death,
and the guilty survivors were seized
by the mystery of it; they would sense
the land was alive and everywhere dense
with meaning; in time it would seem like home.
But suns burst with fathomless indifference

and nothing out there loves flesh that thinks.
The brightness fades, and with it an answer.
Our headphones hiss with the radio noise
of galaxies lost in time; we listen
late into the night for fleeting voices,
for someone to tell us it is otherwise.

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"Dark Constellations," by Ann K. Schwader

The void holds constellations of its own,
eclipsing lesser legends we arrange
in shining pebbles. Shadowy & strange,
they stretch their silhouettes like raptors flown
from rifted light. What’s not is all they are,
& even that invisible to eyes
corrupted by the toxic blare of skies
too wise for night, or wearied by the stars.

Small wonder that those few who see—or saw—
these negative enigmas seldom map
their shapes for strangers. Ancient ways prevail
when recognizing epics in the raw,
or navigating eddies of perhaps
along this river. This dark-winding trail.

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"In the City of Steam," by John W. Sexton

In the City of Steam the people of vapour just sigh.
Murders are silent and bloodless. Under moonlight
the city glows like a fungus; under sunlight it is unbearable
to gaze at. The best time to observe the almost indiscernible
is when the moon is thin and the stars are full.
It is considered discourteous to enter a house by walking
through a wall. Even though the doors waver and are constantly
moving, it is through the door that you should always enter.
Even though cars may pass through you and leave you unscathed
it is considered rude to cross the road against oncoming traffic.
On days of fierce tempests the city and its occupants may disappear
entirely. When they return, maybe weeks later, it is always best
not to let on that they were gone. The people of vapour just sigh.
Pretend at all times to be riveted by their conversation.
As insubstantial as it might be, it is all they have. And never,
under any circumstances whatsoever, breathe in as you kiss them.

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"Ferment," by Jane Røken

There’s a whisper down the line;
every alley runs its nimble fretwork of dispatches.
At smoky roadside shrines, votive covenants
are counted, alliances forged, conspiracies bound
and sealed. Black-burnt smells transposed
into hooded figures out of an old tale.

The first portents have been reported, slippery
as rumours of heresy on the Malabar Coast.
Gaudy heroics in random directions,
the bloody tang of copper, salt, and rust.
The deep graphite sheen of suspicion
that spreads like brushfire,
leaping hill to hill.

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"Postcard to a Far-Distant Composer," by Robert Frazier

These days I welcome
some alien otherness
let someone else’s songlines
freight me home

while I work the Altairan mines
still in patched-up gear
still trying to save for passage
back by wormhole

your small suite
a tide of your species’ secrets
in aural and temporal notes
unravels then streams through me

so thank you for the elevation
for this small favor
for this link between us

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
• President’s Message • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• From the Small Press • Joshua Gage, John Philip Johnson, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Alex Plummer Full reviews
• Stealth SF: Chasing Away Ghosts at Lunch Break • Denise Dumars
• Xenopoetry •  Fedor Svarovsky & Alex Cigale

Art

• Reflections • Richard H. Fay
• Dracopterix Pursues Quad Fliers • Richard H. Fay
• Kira’s Mask • Chris Fradkin

Poetry

• Beyond the Fencerow • Jeffrey Johannes
• The Square Root of Doppelgängers • Robert Borski
• “no up down …” • LeRoy Gorman
• Crystal Hope • Karl Culley
• “walking the spaceport” • Ross Balcom
• You Can Never Go Back • James S. Dorr
• “trinket Earth” • Anna Sykora
• Courtship • Ken Poyner
• “gravity off ” • Joshua Gage
• dragon slayer • Lynette Mejía
• The Spaces Between • Michelle Muenzler
• Enceladus Colony • semi
• Package Disclaimers • Robert & Phoebe Frazier
• Shipbreak • Jane Røken
• To His Coy Dalek / How to Reconcile • Russell Jones
• Pauli Neutrino Telescope, Antarctica, July 14, 2033 • David Barber
• “behind a horizon” • Dietmar Tauchner
• “Human-alien translator broken” • Matthew Wilson
• I Married the Creature from the Black Lagoon • Robert Borski
• Uninteresting Times • Joe Nicholas
• She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah … • Alan Ira Gordon
• Cyborg • Jonel Abellanosa
• “Villa of Perpetual Youth” • Lauren McBride
• The Last Etymologist • Jocko Benoit
• Zombies Never Say • J. P. Brown
• Lockstep • Neal Wilgus
• “it’s recycling day” • William Cullen, Jr.
• “the perfect cover” • Julie Bloss Kelsey
• x-ray image • Deborah P Kolodji
• Interference Patterns • Joanne Merriam & Kendall Evans
• SETI 3000 • David Barber
• Flower Parts • John C. Mannone
• For the Trees • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Numbers • Mary Soon Lee
• Dark Constellations • Ann K. Schwader
• City: a figment, a fragment • Jane Røken
• In the City of Steam • John W. Sexton
• Ferment • Jane Røken
• The World of Eternal Day • Joe Nicholas
• Visitors • Kenny A. Chaffin
• King Midas Seeks to Lift His Curse • Robert Borski
• “boarding the time-travel train” • LeRoy Gorman
• Relativistic Time • Glenn A. Meisenheimer
• “for sale: time machine” • Matthew Wilson
• Why Sci-Fi? • Glenn A. Meisenheimer
• “time-travel special” • LeRoy Gorman
• Authentic Mother Version 2.6 • Beth Cato
• A Fairy Tale • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• “first holiday meal” • Julie Bloss Kelsey
• “for sale: one dragon egg” • Matthew Wilson
• After the War • Matthew Wilson
• 3 Explanations for Footwear Dangling from Powerlines • Robert Borski
• Unanimous • Beth Cato
• Postcard to a Far-Distant Composer • Robert Frazier
• Poe’s Prophets • Adele Gardner
• “for sale: adult human” • Matthew Wilson