Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • Parable by Michael Collins
  • Table of Contents from a Lost Book of Divination by Dean Kostos
  • starship troopers by Lee Garratt
  • Advice to a Six-Year-Old by Mary Soon Lee
  • True, It’s Not What You Think by Denise Dumars
  • Some Notes On The Locals by David Barber
  • The Talking River by John W. Sexton
  • Among the Tall in Long Black Clothes by Laura Madeline Wiseman

• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: NOTHING TO SEE

Of course our lovely cover has no relationship to any aspect of current U.S. politics. Move along quietly, there’s a nice human.

But all you see are two eyes
glaring at you from the depths.
      —Marlena Chertock, “When the fog comes”

As it happens, the next issue of Star*Line, 40.3, will be the last we edit. If you have been lollygagging with respect to submitting (we know nothing of such primeval weaknesses …), now is the time—or you can hold off till August 1, when the new order arises under Vince Gotera. Details in next issue!

We have also relocated our own Fortress of Redaction (see back cover for new postal address). Regrettably, the process is taking place sans matter transmitter or teleport booth, causing She Whom You Metaphorically Behold Before You to be a bit short, brutish, and easily confused. This, too, shall pass.

… a planet-side view
and the enduring philosophy
that whatever doesn’t kill you
makes you strange.
      —Bianca Spriggs, “Live from the Mothership”

We lift a libation of bubbling, smoking liquid to the downfall of tyrants,

—F.J. Bergmann, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"Parable," by Michael Collins

A gravestone lasts longer than a god.
Therefore empires crumble like vampires
in the sun. And when the men of science
uncover the essence of the universe like a stone’s
private parts, the essence is not made of itself
but of pure transience—light as a dustmote floating
in a bead of sweat that drops from the strongman’s brow:
the last strongman, trembling with ungiven
orders, his armies routed, his cities burning,
who works the unconquered earth with his toe
and nods acceptance of the terms of peace.

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"Table of Contents from a Lost Book of Divination," by Dean Kostos

Trajectory of No, Now 1
Quill of an Unknown Cartographer 15
Vision of Melting Glass 23
Writing in Concentric Circles 40
Momentum 80
Invocation to Green Fire 151
The Fight with Three Stars 165
Notes on Direction 180
Electronic Palaver 250
Across Unknown Waters 275
Ghost Ocean of Cyberspace 300
Bound with One Hair 320
If the Body Were an Eye 380
Trajectory of Eyes, Yes 401

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"starship troopers," by Lee Garratt

Can you believe there is a man out there singing
“in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia,”
his only audience the wrecked cruisers that litter this sector,
(The Gorb are finished, though, they say).

Xong told me that on Earth they are using steel again
for spacecraft, so difficult is it now to get krenon.
Xi Lu jokes that next time he’s in Alpha Centauri
and feels the shift and pop of warp drive

he won’t reach for the alarm, just shout “The noodle man
is here!” The Chinese amongst us laugh at this
and we all forget, for a moment, to be afraid.
Up here amidst the stars, bravery is outdated, Earthly.

Maybe. Maybe not. But I have seen troopers,
with the lizard hordes advancing, fasten their suits
as if against nothing more than a chill breeze on Venus
whilst out for a stroll to drink kursh aside the klagons.

This morning a few of us went for an adventure in the jarg.
Red mountains soared above us; the yelang hooted
their yearning cries. And, for a moment, I was home again;
home on my veranda, looking out onto the Amazon woods.

It reminded me somehow of the peaceful day
we took over from the Sonorans in C sector.
Millions had been killed, whole planets burnt, but all I remember
was the purple opalescence of X1, a floating jewel against the black.

A strange fate to be here, fighting a war no one understands
or has any idea who is winning, to know you will die entirely forgotten
by a home that no longer exists. Xavier says this to me
and I laugh so hard I think I will fuse my circuits.

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"Advice to a Six-Year-Old," by Mary Soon Lee

Do not worry what people think.
Keep checking beneath the bed.

Either you will spot a monster,
or you will not.

If you don’t spot a monster,
go to sleep.

If you do spot a monster,
either it will be friendly,
or it will not.

If it is friendly, stay up late.
Swap monster-jokes and human-jokes.
When your parents are asleep,
go down to the kitchen
and offer it green things to eat:
broccoli, lettuce, frozen peas,
the soap, the begonias.

If it is not friendly, scream.
Either you will scare it away,
or your parents will come in time,
or, regrettably, the monster will eat you,
but that would have happened anyhow
once you were asleep.

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"True, It’s Not What You Think," by Denise Dumars

Each oaken drawer
each cloven, shaggy hoof
each soft exploration
of the palm

Goat beard
and dove’s blood ink
patchouli and pepper
cross my palm
Dust to dust

One spiky needle
one vial of reagent
raffia idols
dracaena resin incense
Candles shaped like gods—

They’ve made it
just like home here
breathable atmosphere
and just the right tincture
of gravity

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"Some Notes On The Locals," by David Barber

Where to begin? You will be amused
to hear of such quaint customs as
freedom and equality, though
sights of these proved elusive;

Art is where they send messages
to someone they have never met;
unusually, guilt is spread
throughout the population,

often in quantities only
our Most Guilty could withstand;
sufficient to say they have invented
money, warfare, science and lies.

Much effort involves sockets and pipework
instead of binary fission. Where
Babies Come From is worth a watch,
if only for the surprise ending.

The post-reproductive caste discuss
entropy at length. This is health.
Death seems common, and unique
information is often buried in the ground.

More pathological is their belief
that the universe is benign, something
they will regret when a Locust Fleet
sniffs out their broadcasts.

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"The Talking River," by John W. Sexton

I was sent without a hope
Down to the talking river
Found a length of silver rope
To lead me to forever

I tied it to a single star
And anchored it to heather
And climbed as near enough to far
Where clouds give birth to weather

I took the knife my father made
From a raven’s feather
And cut a window through the clouds
As square enough to never

I took the song my mother wrote
Upon a purse of leather
And sang each strange discordant note
To make the evening quiver

The grass laid out its verdant coat
And dressed me with a shiver
And then a weasel and a stoat
Declared my life a whisper

I was sent without a hope
Down to the talking river
Found a length of silver rope
To lead me to forever

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"Among the Tall in Long Black Clothes," by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Acer saccharinum

Then follow the years they snap
our limbs, twist wires into fences,
cage men from the road. Beyond us

others wait in the craggy foothills
to thieve their supplies, while we
are routinely shaken in the dark.

They strip our arms, denude limbs
of bark, and take what we hold
(nests, burrows, kites, troves).

Within that thrashing, the wind pants,
paws humidity, then torrent,
opens our wounds to windstorm.

We are treed, always, but then
they carve their initials, prayers,
and entire tongue into our trunk.

With roots bound deep into the plains,
we can’t turn from them, can’t stop
the wind, wildfires, and droughts,

or leave their hill. Not discarded,
but used, then blamed for whatever
befalls each day—tree lice, mold,

rotten bark, leaves that whither
in blackened curls. We strain,
dissociating from trunk to crown.

Our heartwood hollows, becomes
a masticated thing, a jagged chamber,
a void of refuse. Then the first bombs fall.

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * F.J. Bergmann
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
• From the Small Press • Joshua Gage, John Philip Johnson, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Diane Severson
• Stealth SF: All For Love • Denise Dumars
• Xenopoetry * Japanese Scifaiku: Five Selections * Amase Hiroyasu; translated by Natsumi Ando

Poetry

• “Mars spring” * LeRoy Gorman
• How to Move the Earth, in Parts * Aaron Kinne
• On the Nature of Reality: On the Reality of Nature * Dean Kostos
• When I Speak * Wendy Rathbone
• “I am ready for the apocalypse” * Josh Brown
• Parable * Michael Collins
• “another world” * John Reinhart
• The City’s Bones * Connor Ahluwalia
• “found in Sarpedon” * Christina Sng
• “How you destroy a planet …” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• “the wine” * Christina Sng
• “hoping” * Christina Sng
• The Body Electrician * Josh Pearce
• It’s your turn” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• We’ll Hardly Miss It * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• The Bright Ships * David Barber
• “good as now” * LeRoy Gorman
• “turning my skin” * Christina Sng
• Her Clockwork Heart * Sandra J. Lindow
• “tornado warning” * Christina Sng
• Lycanthrope * Bonnie Rae Walker
• “the simplest” * Christina Sng
• Table of Contents from a Lost Book of Divination * Dean Kostos
• Long-term * Helga Anton-Beitz
• A Fourteen-line Poem on Separation * Salik Shah
• “pet wolf” * Christina Sng
• “neighbors howl monthly” * John Reinhart
• Memories of the Old Ones * irving
• starship troopers * Lee Garratt
• On the Lips of Saturn * Stephanie M. Wytovich
• Advice to a Six-Year-Old * Mary Soon Lee
• “carrying to term” * Thomas Tilton
• “flatulent cattle” * LeRoy Gorman
• “some called him” * M. X. Kelly
• Wearware * Robert Borski
• “no dinner” * Denny E. Marshall
• Epitaph for a Raptor Clone * Herb Kauderer
• The Origin of the Heavens Is in the Heavens * John W. Sexton
• “humans achieve biological immortality” * Lauren McBride
• It’s OK, We Have Lasers * Don Raymond
• True, It’s Not What You Think * Denise Dumars
• “when the dragon’s tastes changed” * John Reinhart
• Campaign Ad 2316 C.E. * J. P. Brown
• Some Notes On The Locals * David Barber
• “amid squiggles” * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• “bedtime” * LeRoy Gorman
• All Those Songs Make No Sense Now * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• “seven billion ships” * Denny E. Marshall
• “My only hope …” * Ronald A. Busse
• “blue moon” * Christina Sng
• Offspring * David Barber
• “Martian birthday cake” * William Landis
• 6EQUJ5 * Rebecca Buchanan
• To Eat or Not to Eat * J. P. Brown
• Smartphone Circa 2069, Brought to You by the Clone of Thomas Edison * M.X. Kelly
• “time traveler’s testimony” * LeRoy Gorman
• Space Colony One: Cycle-End Report * Peter Bloch-Hansen
• caesura * Robin Wyatt Dunn
• Note on the Teachers’ Lounge Fridge at the Witches’ Academy * Beth Cato
• The Secret Goldfish * J. P. Brown
• Strange Foreign Transmissions * Francis W. Alexander
• Seam * Holly Day
• Robochete * Robert Borski
• “full moon” * Christina Sng
• Question * Shannon Connor Winward
• View from a Tropo-Level Unit * Mark Danowsky
• In Black and White * Soren James
• The Brown-Paper Princess * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Old Dog, New Tricks * Robert Borski
• “23rd-century ebooks” * Lauren McBride
• Decompression * Connor Ahluwalia
• Westernesse * Anna Magdalena Staple
• “Schrodinger’s cat” * Christina Sng
• The Talking River * John W. Sexton
• The Crossroads in a Dark Hall * Charlotte Ozment
• Escape * Douglas Cole
• “calls from far away” * Denny E. Marshall
• The Untalented * Rohinton Daruwala
• Intro To Artificial Intelligence 101 * Alan Ira Gordon
• Note To My Neuro-Ad Chip Implant * C.R. Harper
• Luggage * Yunsheng Jiang
• Transmigrations * Soren James
• “she sends word over the mountains” * Robin Wyatt Dunn
• in the palace of the giant * Rebecca Buchanan
• The Dark Equations * Mary Soon Lee
• Planetary Warfare * Ellery A. Lewark
• “land” * LeRoy Gorman
• Firefall * Adam Ford
• Mother Tunguska * Amelia Gorman
• Pandemonium * Gene Twaronite
• Beyond * Wendy Rathbone
• The house dwells * Serena Fusek
• Operator * Deborah L. Davitt
• “Tell me, who can I call …” * Robin Wyatt Dunn
• Letter from the Grave * Gene Twaronite
• Guns Grow on Trees * John Philip Johnson
• Pattern of Response * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• “photoshopping poltergeist” * Francis W. Alexander
• Among the Tall in Long Black Clothes * Laura Madeline Wiseman
• “neighbors upstairs” * Francis W. Alexander