Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • Foreign Policy by David Barber
  • “science” by James D. Fuson
  • On the Condition by Michael Lisieski
  • “garage sale” by Christina Sng
  • Boots’s Boy by Adele Gardner
  • Where Birds in the Sky Creep Downward by Laura Hanna
  • My Father’s Familiar by Marc Vincenz

• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: The Long Decline

And now we have passed the peak of the summer solstice and are gently coasting down the seasonal slope toward the equinox.

Congratulations to our Rhysling Award winners and to SFPA member Robert Frazier, who recently received the Asimov’s Science Fiction Readers’ Award for “1,230 Grams of Einstein”!

Recently someone posted on the SFPA listserv (sfpanet@yahoogroups.com—anyone can join) that Star*Line seemed to publish the same poets all the time. We do have our share of repeat offenders (I don’t believe in penalizing prolific poets who are writing excellent work by applying more rigorous standards to them than to others, or by limiting their appearances), but I’ve run statistics, and this is what they show: we’ve ranged from about 50 poems per issue to as many as 90 (mind you, many are haiku); but the number of poets per issue is 40–55.

Since I began selecting poetry for Star*Line (now for the last 16 issues), approximately 230 new poets have been published—and many of these in turn have become frequent flyers. I take personal responsibility for about 10% of these, who either submitted work to Mobius that I thought was more suitable for Star*Line or else were local poets whom I prodded unmercifully until they extruded specnal work. About 130 are male, 90 female, 10 unknown.

This works out to an average of 14 hitherto-unfamiliar poets per issue, which is something like 30%. I’m pleased and proud—and happy to mention that 19 more new-to-S*L poets appear in the current issue: 10 M, 7 F, and 2 ?

Ultimately, those scarlet engines of speculation penetrating this contact lead us into more vigorous wilds.

            —Sueyeun Juliette Lee, “Even Though the Complex Landing Was Achieved,” Solar Maximum (FuturePoem, 2015)

Rev your scarlet engines.

—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"Foreign Policy," by David Barber

Of the Most-Wanted, there are no pictures.
One, we think, is stout and small of stature,
another, grey-bearded, and a third

has deformed ears. Our soldiers have playing
cards with likenesses provided by our
Coalition partner. (Questionable

though the regime’s record on human rights
may be, it brings stability to the region.
No one wants Weapons of Mass Destruction

on the wrong fingers.) As was decided
at the Isengard Summit, we support
Mordor fully against this terrorist threat

and drone-strikes will target insurgents
from the so-called Council of Elrond.
Meanwhile, air raids on the Shire continue.

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"science," by James D. Fuson

science
whispering things
in my ear

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"On the Condition," by Michael Lisieski

They’ve stopped punishing those
who are unregistered. Now
and again, somebody undocumented
is greeted by a friendly Liaison saying
“Let’s get you in the system, shall we?”
And then the benefits come, credits
every month on the condition
of pills: birth control, nutrition,
mood, sleep. Participation
is voluntary and strict.
Nobody ever calls this
a laboratory, but sometimes,
when your dosage is low
as you contemplate
the evening pillbox,
you think that this is
maybe how those mice feel,
belly up and waiting
for the milky syringe.

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"garage sale," by Christina Sng

garage sale
the stone basilisks stare
disapprovingly

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"Boots’s Boy," by Adele Gardner

My master wears big boots I cannot fill
Though my feet are ten times larger. In his stride
I follow my own glory, learn the tale,
Along with king, my only task to smile
As if each triumph, every harvest spared,
Each ogre slain and castle won were not
Complete surprises. Gallant, jaunty, glib
Of tongue and sharp of claw, my master gives
Me titles, bride, a crown his fur can’t wear,
Calls me the hero—but I’m just his pet.

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"Where Birds in the Sky Creep Downward," by Laura Hanna

To Dr. M.L. Williams, professor at Valdosta State University

The sidewalks are burning
and all the clocks have stopped.
The fire has spread to the graveyard.
The formaldehyde used to preserve
the dead is catching on fire,
along with their bodies
and the hollowed trees used
to hide them from decay.
My professor
gave up space exploration
(a degree in physics)
to teach us poetry.
He will never find
a new planet to save us
after this one is destroyed,
but he taught us
how to write about it,
a form of salvation.

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"My Father’s Familiar," by Marc Vincenz

A dragon, I believe.
Face pearly and luminescent
Like cuttlefish bone.

Strange, since he was Swiss
And didn’t believe in ghosts,
Except perhaps his own.

I’m sure the damn thing
Blew in his ear all his life,
A steamtrain of hot whispers

Searing into his brain,
And convinced of his own royalty
More than anyone else’s.

I could see it sometimes,
Hovering over Father,
Swishing its long tail,

A crown encircling his head,
Sometimes just hanging there
Like a silent stormcloud.

It guided him in the dark
But frequently let him stumble …
The curses as he stubbed his toe

On the corner of the bed
Were enough to curdle the blood
Of any self-respecting dragon,

And my mother never forgave him,
Even after he was long dead,
For leaving the creature to her.

The old thing, now tired of flying
A treble clef of what it once was,
Nested in her hair,

Afraid of the dark,
Afraid of the cold,
Afraid of its own shadow—

Vexed that one day
It would be left alone
To fend for itself

On the wild updrafts
Of turbulence that well up
When you’re left without a home.

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
• SFPA Announcements
• Acting President’s Message * Sandra J. Lindow
• From the Small Press • Joshua Gage, Sandra J. Lindow, Diane Severson
• Tracking Untitled Poems or Poems Intended for Collections * Herb Kauderer

Art

• V2: the Long Arm of Vengeance * Robert Porter
• Adapted to Landscape * Denny E. Marshall
• Snider * Denny E. Marshall
• Pink Elephant Island * Robert Porter
• Cacophony * Aaron Morgan

Poetry

• Foreign Policy * David Barber
• “solar eclipse” * Christina Sng
• shooting star * Mark A. Fisher
• Channel Earth * Salik Shah
• Learning the History of War * J. J. Steinfeld
• “science” * James D. Fuson
• “reaching the end” * Joshua Gage
• poem in the shape of a starship * M. X. Kelly
• On the Birth of Twins * Ken Poyner
• Feast * Michael Kriesel
• Dreams * Glenn A. Meisenheimer
• In the Convent * Marcie Tentchoff
• Work in Progress * Herb Kauderer
• “immortality” * James D. Fuson
• sacrificial virgin * Davian Aw
• Black is the Color * Ethan Heusser
• Fey * Deborah L. Davitt
• The Hut with Pigeon Feet * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• At The Robot National Convention * Alan Ira Gordon
• On the Condition * Michael Lisieski
• Red Star Elegy * Deborah L. Davitt
• “a see-through mouse” * James D. Fuson
• “garage sale” * Christina Sng
• “Slip not on postman’s bones” * Matthew Wilson
• Boots’s Boy * Adele Gardner
• “racing out” * Christina Sng
• epitaph for an ogre * Herb Kauderer
• “after their walk” * Christina Sng
• Electric Sheep * Christiaan Sabatelli
• “telepathic security” * John Reinhart
• Footprints * Beth Cato
• Fur Ceiling * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• City in Ruins, Residents Well Fed * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Where Birds in the Sky … * Laura Hanna
• Bullets Won’t Stop It * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Why not spice it up with a hologram? * Raoul Izzard
• “time travelers arriving” * John Reinhart
• Elegy for Iain Banks * Vince Gotera
• “wearable AI” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Spreading Ink * John W. Sexton
• “zombie party” * LeRoy Gorman
• Shopping Spree * Beth Cato
• “the living dead” * James D. Fuson
• The Carrington Event, 1859 * Robert Borski
• “still haunting the sky” * Charles Christian
• N.N.Y * Jake Tringali
• “72 seconds” * James D. Fuson
• Snarge * Robert Borski
• “singles bar” * William Cullen, Jr.
• “pillow talk” * LeRoy Gorman
• My Father’s Familiar * Marc Vincenz
• Sentinel (Hexagrams 47–29) * M. C. Childs
• Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. * E. Kristin Anderson
• Development * Sarah Shirley
• “Chernobyl” * Christina Sng
• Thank You for Not Shifting * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Murmurings from a Dyson sphere * Arjun Rajendran
• “Space station tourists jostle” * Alan Katerinsky
• “old money” * LeRoy Gorman
• On the Job, 2525 CE * Karla Linn Merrifield
• Robot #13 (museum) & Robot #14 (panel discussion) * Jennifer MacBain-Stephens
• Partial Science * Alex Harwood
• “time machine rentals” * LeRoy Gorman
• Glitching * Ash Krafton
• “your young self ” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• The Silence * David Barber
• “year-round haze” * Christina Sng
• “Martian seashell” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• “higher loops” * Lauren McBride
• “probes return” * John Reinhart
• “Martian settlement” * Joshua Gage
• “before the trees grew” * Lauren McBride
• Left Forgot * Neal Wilgus
• Channel 241 * J. Zachary Rothstein
• Employee Recognition Day * Lucy A. Snyder
• Groceries * Sophie Gullett
• Friends in Small Places * Deborah L. Davitt
• After the shuttle lands * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Mutatis Mutandis * Andrew M. Crabtree
• Cacophony IV. * Joshua Medsker
• “the origami ship” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Nothing But Blue Skies * Gary Every
• Throwing the Furniture … * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• confabulation * Mark A. Fisher
• “the last man” * Thomas Tilton