Cover: Nearby Words of Aporia © 2011 Aunia Kahn
Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: F.J. Bergmann
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Wyrms & Wormholes: Emerging from Our Lairs into the Light
While Spring has not yet sprung as I write, at least in the sense of botanical manifestations, it is girding its loins to do so, and the temperature is rising into the range favored by lightly clad humans, tempting us to venture out from our shadowy, gelid fortresses.
Thanks to Bryan Thao Worra, Terry Garey and James D. Fuson, who donated toward continuing our color covers. We are grateful to them and our lovely advertisers, and to those who sponsored the Rhysling Anthology: with their assistance, SFPA is gradually rising above hand-to-mouth insolvency. Onward to more opulent productions!
We are also grateful to the teneral volunteers who responded to our plaintive laments in the last issue: our new Webmaster, who is responsible for the incredibly useful online nomination and voting forms, is Renée Ya (renee.ya@gmail.com), and now in charge of the ever-swelling SFPA rosters is our new Membership Chair Diane Severson (divadianepoetry@gmail.com).
. . . . . . . . . . . . I dread the future, yet it arrives
little by little. Knowingly we disappear into it.
Our bodies dissolve molecule by molecule
swept out to the edge of the intangible,
where light is compressed into blackness.
—Alan Soldofsky, “Current”
The future is coming.
—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor
Editor's Choice Poems
"The Isn’t Bus," by John W. Sexton
An eye has risen over the city
and weeps its green lye. The city is as thin
as light; it blinks in and out; here now, gone now.
The street is and isn’t. I take the isn’t bus.
At the lights the bus is. On entering the bus station
the bus isn’t. We disembark into a pale flame.
Moths as large as coats expire as smoke
in the air around us. A woman begins combing
sound from her hair. The sound flocks
in the brightness above us, a liquid ball of dark;
it coagulates over the city. One by one
single chimes fall from the sky. The concrete forecourt
of the bus station is littered with starlings,
now fluttering soundlessly at our feet.
A man removes faces from his briefcase
and distributes them to everyone nearby.
The face he has given me is disconsolate. I pull it over
my head and it slips into place. Another bus
enters the station and we embark. We ask
to be taken nowhere and the driver kills the
engine. In the stillness of the darkened bus
we wait without any expectation whatsoever.
"Second star right …," by Aimee Leonard
Second star right, morning. Simple enough.
The complex constellations back aren’t as friendly.
Yet another lost boy.
"So, Whimper?," by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Earthgov Budget Crisis Out of Control
Pension Fund Empty—Minister Terminated
Andromeda Partners LLC Seize Assets of Defaulting Orb
Elements With Atomic Number Above 71 To Be Repossessed
Earth Keeps Everything Below Hafnium—No Nukes, But We Have Our CHON
“Don’t Borrow If You Can’t Pay” Says Extragalactic Horror
Sol-System Emergency Manager: Organic Matter Will Be Cut
At Least They Didn’t Want Our Women
"Gas Crush," by Samantha Renda-Dollman
Three breaths, then you’re ghosting,
veins fractured with ice,
the delirious
sunrise—a burnt-out star,
swarming through purple cloud.
This deep into the gas underbelly,
pressure becomes narcosis,
just like diving.
Looking up,
pearl-necklace moons fade away,
their ethereal trail
the last tether to the floating dark,
and then it’s a kind of limbo,
caught
between the crush
(a succubus pulling down on every limb)
and the wide, empty places between stars.
I’ve lost friends like that,
succumbing to the rush,
crumpled, spider fractures in the gravity well …
… adds to the thrill.
"Mothership," by Bobbie Lovell
When the silver saucer finally
returned, hovered stealthily
above the suburb and caught me
in its beam, I was afraid.
I never thought I’d balk,
feel anything but joy. I’d waited
so long. Pined nearly to death.
Yet homesickness waned
to complacence. I got comfy
in human skin, acquiesced
to the primitive patterns
of Earth years, Earthling lives.
I fooled all, loved some,
built a family and flourished.
When my own kind came
calling at last, time froze,
all outcomes reduced to stay or go.
It had to be clean—no goodbye,
no reason. A simple disappearance,
an endless evening stroll.
In that shaft of light, two worlds
fused, then split again.
You know what happened next.
You would have done the same.
Full Table of Contents
Departments
- In Memoriam: Suzette Haden Elgin • Elizabeth Barrette
- Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
- President’s Message • Bryan D. Dietrich
- From the Small Press • David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Sandra J. Lindow, Alex Plummer, Diane Severson Full reviews
- Stealth SF • No Escape * Denise Dumars
- Xenopoetry • Andromeda Blossoms * Ikuko Tanaka; tr. Miho Kinnas & Shelly Bryant
Art
- Long Legs * Denny E. Marshall
Poetry
- Morning Dew * Mark Mansfield
- The Isn’t Bus * John W. Sexton
- “Second star right …” * Aimee Leonard
- Driving 80 mph at Night * William Cullen, Jr.
- “vision exam tedium” * Lauren McBride
- Abominable Punctuation * John Reinhart
- Advice * Allison McBain
- HR Meeting Still On Despite UFO * Sonny James Traylor
- Flower Gardening … * Robert Frazier
- On Reading Fantasy * Mary Soon Lee
- “easter sunday” * Dietmar Tauchner
- Drink Deeply Before Morning * John Reinhart
- “alien autumn …” * Ann K. Schwader
- Street Smarts * Robert Borski
- “credit limit reached” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Et in Arcadia Ego * Mary Cresswell
- Fragments * Wamuhu Mwaura
- A Review of Your Dream … * Jessy Randall
- The Science of Disappearing * Chris Castro-Rappi
- So, Whimper? * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- Gas Crush * Samantha Renda-Dollman
- “Gliesan language” * Lauren McBride
- The Lost Virus * Ken Poyner
- Pluto * J. Mirio
- Heat Signature * Karl Culley
- “flesh on cold metal” * William Landis
- Genetic * Beth Cato
- “giant robots” * James D. Fuson
- “all you can eat” * LeRoy Gorman
- The Coming Dark * Wendy Rathbone
- Z-mail * Steven B. Katz
- Starships on the Beach * Alan Ira Gordon
- “blood moon” * Ann K. Schwader
- Cure * Mary Soon Lee
- I Bought the Farm * John Reinhart
- “tropical dwarf dragons” * Lauren McBride
- Creation Time * Terry A. Garey
- “when hell freezes over” * Deborah P Kolodji
- The Spiders of Space * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
- hostile alien book review * LeRoy Gorman
- View from the Venera Venus Lander * Cathy Douglas
- “upturned faces” * Deborah P Kolodji
- Cold-Blooded Company * Matthew Wilson
- Future of an Expanding Universe * E.H. Brogan
- Poetry-Reading Honorarium * J.J. Steinfeld
- After * Mary Soon Lee
- Uncanny Valley Trail * Carrie Naughton
- ‘What was this witch’s crime?’ * Aimee Leonard
- “Now she keeps Milk-Bones …” * Aimee Leonard
- The Time Traveler’s Illness * Beth Cato
- “Rock” * Matthew Wilson
- “Epsilon Eridani” * Dietmar Tauchner
- “Romeo, Juliet, and the Time Machine” * Matthew Wilson
- The Border Cowboy’s Horse * Beth Cato
- “they claimed our star” * C.R. Harper
- Your last word on earth * A.J. Odasso
- Mothership * Bobbie Lovell
- Tsundoku * Robert Borski