Cover: Communing with the Ancestors © Hasani Claxton, 30" x 24" oil on linen
Editor: F.J. Bergmann
Layout: F.J. Bergmann
Production Manager: F.J. Bergmann
Mailing: Brian Garrison
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Wyrms & Wormholes: Hello Out There
All too briefly, aliens were real. For just a few days, many of us were thrilled by reports of an alien signal. We hope for and in some cases fear the existence of all sorts of aliens—not just ETs, but fairies, ghosts, and other currently irreal beings. And some of us generate them and their worlds.
I haven’t played computer games since the days of Obsidian and Myst, mainly because I know myself too well (TIME SINK ADDICTION), but I have been tempted by No Man’s Sky, which is effectively an infinite universe inside our universe—which may itself be a hologram created by entities in another, external universe. We wonder at what point Reality ends and Imaginary begins.
Recently, there’s been some discussion among members as to what constitutes a rigorous definition of “speculative” poetry—and it appears that all of us have different criteria. The definition of our founder, Suzette Haden Elgin, includes science poetry, which to me would mean non-fictional, and even the definition of what is science rather than science fiction is open to discussion—I take issue with the idea, in the current Stealth column on p. 25, that something like The Martian could possibly be considered science rather than hard SF. Based on scientific knowledge, certainly, but there are major obstacles to be overcome before travel to Mars becomes reality. It seems to me that the irreal—what cannot exist at this time, or maybe ever—is what we’re all about. However, speculative writers have predicted the unforeseeable successfully for centuries!
In the northern hemisphere of our current planet, where most SFPA members and contributors reside, fall is inexorably advancing, making the butterflies and hibiscus blossoms of the cover painting only a memory—but others live where spring is in full bloom, or the eternal summer of the equator, and who is to say how many more summers dwell within us?
Will tomorrow be beautiful?
—Juliet Patterson, “Draft of a Landscape”
Wishing you all infinite universes to write and read in.
—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor
Editor's Choice Poems
"Witching," by David Clink
Rain held dominion
the afternoon we became witches.
A globe was spun
every time my shovel hit the earth.
We buried talismans in the rain-soaked dirt,
gathered stones, drizzled twigs,
arranged them in a circle.
Sitting in our puddled clothing,
we sank into the ground,
stones and twigs surrounding us.
Tree rings witnessed another spin
of the globe, the sound of bark cracking.
"Morning during Migration Season," by Beth Cato
she awakens to the
sharp ammonia stench of magic
an immediate reminder
that it’s migration season
still clad in pajamas
she clutches an iron blade
checks every windowsill
panes crusted with wards of salt
the other side of the glass
mounded with dead fairies
miniature faces frozen
in feral grimaces
toothpick-sized swords in hand
their wings already blackened
by the first pink beams of sun
fairy stragglers too slow to escape the dawn
are fizzling motes falling to the lawn
and will add crunchy sound effects
when the woman mows on Saturday
coffee burbles
toast sizzles
the morning news perkily states
“only three more nights of curfew!
maybe we can make this our third
consecutive year without anyone
being dragged to Fairy Land.
Stay indoors all night, folks,
or you’ll be the special guest
of the Queen’s feast
roasted with an apple in your mouth!
Next up, here’s Bob with the weather—
that rain’s coming in now, right?”
she sips her coffee
grimaces at the thought
of the drifts of fairy corpses
that must clutter her door sill
a few bodies are bound
to be stuck to her car windshield wipers, too
those grotesque little things
spread-eagled
arms waving with every arc
through a smear of rain
and pollen-thick magic
“three more nights,” she mutters
only a week of inconvenience every year
she can deal
her job is good
the mortgage paid
she shoves her feet into
her heaviest boots
soles so thick they almost
prevent her from feeling
the crackle of bones underfoot
"Demon Lovers," by Greer Woodward
you mean nothing to me
nor I to you
yet our
bone-winged
children
wish to
move back
home
"Previous Plans for Escape," by J. J. Steinfeld
Broken time have you been captive
on this peculiar little planet
a hundred of their sad years
the first of your species
sent to explore for reasons
long forgotten as you have been.
Crawling through a dark prison
constructed for your strangeness
the corridor long and unfamiliar
the sounds loud and sinister
someone else’s makeshift beliefs
yet familiar photographs on walls
of confinement and privation
the blood on the ceiling
reminds you of the sacred region
of your distant in memory planet
you have only injured swiftness
left to get to the corridor’s end
into that place of journey’s memory
where a hidden spacecraft awaits
but movement is nothing but mockery
of previous plans for escape.
"Death Poem," by C. J. Miles
I received a letter in the mail stating that I was cordially invited
To attend my own death. It would happen at the intersection
Of Palm and 118th, exactly 42 minutes after sunrise
On the 7th of November, 2029. I would be 44 years old.
It won’t be the cigarettes, the letter stated, but it will
Involve smoke signals. The letter also informed me
That I should be prompt, as Death is busy, schedules
Must be kept, the world can’t slow for one asshole.
The letter came with an RSVP and a note asking
For a list of anyone I wanted to invite, up to 5 guests.
It is often a mistake to invite parents.
It is often a mistake to invite love
In any form.
I wrote down the names of the first 3 girls I thought
About kissing and did. I added Tupac’s hologram,
The saddest person living in Detroit.
"Overheard in an Antarean Bar," by Glenn A. Meisenheimer
I know you’ve been a while in space
It’s got to be a drag,
This interspecies mating, though,
Is really not my bag.
For how am I to turn you on?
You have the wrong designs,
You haven’t any gills to grab
Nor any dorsal spines,
Your covering is pale and soft,
No evidence of scales.
You don’t have very many eyes
And even fewer tails.
There are too many differences
That cannot be resolved.
Come see me in a million years
When you are more evolved.…
"A Robot’s History of Art," by Lanette Cadle
We still don’t know the significance
of their two-dimensional acts. We all know
when Panderob manufactured his greatest work,
the 4th Street silicone shower, its utility was seamless;
the copper pipes gently arced over the traditional
street paved in gold, a perfectly balanced web
of light and shadow spraying the finest-grade lubricant
over our dry hinges as we rolled to the plants
on Formosa Avenue. Their art served other purposes,
unclassified. And now, some collectors treasure
renderings of piles of shoes, broken, hairless dolls
or the soup can repetitions, but none know why
they were formed. Maybe a visual inventory
was needed to replace the time spent motionless
at night. Maybe they had no permanent memory.
Their soft language was circular, random,
like the logic-loop infection that shut unit six down.
This was their peculiar fate. Nothing existed
except by how other things described it:
the sun, a chariot racing across the sky,
marking the hours; the hours, a stream of sand
pooling in a greening metal bowl, emptied when filled.
Full Table of Contents
Departments
- Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
- SFPA Announcements
- President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
- From the Small Press • Herb Kauderer, Diane Severson
- Stealth SF: Sciencing the S*** out of Poetry • Denise Dumars
- Poetry with Bite * Cardinal Cox
- Xenopoetry * Spaceship * Angelo Niles; translated from the Arabic by J. P. Brown
Art
- Ringmasters Dance * Denny E. Marshall
- Black Wings * Denny E. Marshall
- Spider Skull * Cesar Valtierra
Poetry
- Catsitting on Halloween * Christina Sng
- Unknown Quantity * Lisa Timpf
- “planet of flowers” * ayaz daryl nielsen
- Witching * David Clink
- “first contact” * Carolyn M. Hinderliter
- History Teacher * Gary Every
- 4.367 light years * Robin Wyatt Dunn
- Your New Political Machine * C.R. Harper
- The Reports * David Clink
- “thereisapoint” * LeRoy Gorman
- The Other Side of the Fence * Robert Borski
- One Giant Leap for Wolfkind * J. P. Brown
- “full moon” * Francis W. Alexander
- The Time Traveller’s Tale * David Barber
- “every day” * Susan Burch
- “old photo” * Christina Sng
- “a world” * Christina Sng
- “regrowing” * Christina Sng
- “three suns” * Christina Sng
- Morning during Migration Season * Beth Cato
- Demon Lovers * Greer Woodward
- “Lamp for sale” * Matthew Wilson
- “One does not simply walk into Mordor” * Wendy S. Delmater
- “blue sun” * Christina Sng
- Cataclysm Days * Chuck Von Nordheim
- First Extrasolar Settlement * Herb Kauderer
- The Dark Between the Stars * G. O. Clark
- “no shore” * Ann K. Schwader
- stories for bedtime * John Reinhart
- “Please respect the forum rules” * Matthew Wilson
- A Shapeshifter Approaches Retirement * David Clink
- SN 1006 * Deborah L. Davitt
- “möbius world” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel & Kendall Evans
- Adolescence * Ken Poyner
- “A shrill whistle …” * Ronald A. Busse
- How to Tell If You’re Human * Jessy Randall
- The Planters’ Season * Jarod K. Anderson
- “After the hydroponics catastrophe” * Herb Kauderer
- Fairest * Deborah L. Davitt
- What’ll it Be? * Lauren McBride
- Futures, the Odyssey * Isaac Black
- “empty teleportals” * Billy Antonio
- “psionic laughter” * LeRoy Gorman
- Cybernaut * Ken Poyner
- “paranormal games” * LeRoy Gorman
- How to Lie to a Telepath * Rohinton Daruwala
- Previous Plans for Escape * J. J. Steinfeld
- Cetacean Prosthesis * Holly Walrath
- Dog Days * Robert Borski
- The Good Samaritan * Steve Castro
- “pandemonium” * Christina Sng
- Timebenders * Glenn A. Meisenheimer
- “storm surge” * LeRoy Gorman
- Death Poem * C. J. Miles
- Tidal Disruption Event * Ann K. Schwader
- Protocols * Deborah L. Davitt
- Horse and Girl * Beth Cato
- “only after” * d l mattila
- Overheard in an Antarean Bar * Glenn A. Meisenheimer
- Marriage * Christina Sng
- “after the divorce” * Susan Burch
- “waking this morning” * ayaz daryl nielsen
- Smuggler to the Stars * J. P. Brown
- La Villa de Sirenia * Jack Ralls
- Semelparity * Shannon Connor Winward
- Apocalyptothèque * Anton Rose
- “icy roads” * LeRoy Gorman
- “breakfast with the soothsayer” * ayaz daryl nielsen
- A Feeling of Motion * Herb Kauderer
- Time Machine * Glenn A. Meisenheimer
- The Hand * Ian Duncan
- “Once this bedroom door is closed” * Simon Perchik
- A Robot’s History of Art * Lanette Cadle
- The Generations * Soren James
- Hopper’s Nighthawks: Large Ginger Cat Remix * Lanette Cadle
- “museum visit” * Billy Antonio
- In The Museum Of The Future * Richard Merelman
- Centaur * Robin Wyatt Dunn
- Dracula’s Poet * Ian Hunter
- “christmas snow” * LeRoy Gorman
- To A Child * Robert Frazier
- Winter Approaching * Ronald Terry
- “my travel log—” * Lauren McBride
- fairied tales * John Reinhart
- “rings” * Greer Woodward