Online Issue Contents

• Dragons & Rayguns

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • [spewing] by Roxanne Barbour
  • Widening Gyroscope by F. J. Bergmann
  • Wolf Moon by Susan McLean
  • Come Embrace Space by Lauren McBride
  • Illiteracy by Scott E. Green & Herb Kauderer
  • Shapeshifter Taxonomy by A. C. Spahn

• Full Table of Contents

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Dragons & Rayguns

Greetings, specpo people! It’s April, which makes it National Poetry Month in the US and actually in many star systems in the quadrant.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the HAY(NA)KU, a poetic form invented by Filipino American poet Eileen R. Tabios: a tercet with one word in the first line, two in the second, and three in the third. Eileen wanted to call it the Philippine Haiku, but I suggested “hay(na)ku,” a pun on the Filipino expression hay naku—untranslatable directly but meaning something on the order of oh my gosh in surprise or exasperation—and haiku, with na (meaning “already” in Filipino) splitting the hay and ku.

Variants of the hay(na)ku include the reverse hay(na)ku (3-2-1), chained hay(na)ku (longer poems constructed of hay(na)ku stanzas), and my own invention, the hay(na)ku sonnet (5 hay(na)ku stanzas with the last compressed into a couplet of 3 words per line in order to total 14 lines).

Apropos for us here on Planet Star*Line is the SF hay(na)ku called a sci(na)ku. You’ll find several sci(na)ku as well as fantasy and horror hay(na)ku in this issue by Kathleen A. Lawrence, Katrina Archer, Lauren McBride (even one co-authored with her son Jacob McBride), and Roxanne Barbour. In fact, Roxanne has just invented a new variant, the hay(na)ku tanka, with 5 lines of 1 word, 2 words, 3, 2, then 1. Of course—because specpo—she gives us sci(na)ku tanka, two examples of which are below; the poem on the right is even a reverse one! (5 lines of 3 words, 2 words, then 1, 2, 3.) I hope you enjoy these sci(na)ku / hay(na)ku poems.

The poems here also include a list poem by Arjun Rajendran, a fib and cheritas by David C. Kopaska-Merkel, a ghazal by Joshua Gage, and another rondeau redoublé by Mindy Watson. Eileen R. Tabios is also here with a robot tanka. We’re happy to honor Asian American Heritage Month (May in the US) with cover art by Likhain, continuing Star*Line’s 40th SFPA anniversary celebration with art by poets. She gives us a genderbending re-vision of Heinlein’s blind poet Rhysling and a space dog for the Chinese Year of the Dog. Now go write some sci(na)ku!

—Vince Gotera, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"[spewing]," by Roxanne Barbour

spewing
lunar dust
underground caverns uncovered
blueprints revealed
pathways

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"Widening Gyroscope," by F. J. Bergmann

The songs coiled and multiplied in the shallows
as we walked through layers of sensation.
We had left our cast-off feet sitting pretty.

Lack of reserves, not a cent, indicates purity;
the indigent heart, or was it indignant art.
My life’s work: the breathtaking, perfect fresco

encrusted in blood, more tactile than pastels
on paper, more carnal than mute colorway. Intense.
Different. Beautiful, though. A bit too too. Red.

Come-hither eyes whose caramel influence could not
have brought us low gazing through a mask of hands.
Keep your distance. It had taken increased ability

just to be owned or given. Closer to the sea of space,
the cornerstone of the morning is about to move.
Why do they always leave these things unguarded?

The stardrive had simple controls and comfortingly
familiar accessories: fuel reserve indicators, flesh
(someone’s)-colored plastic, white rose in a bud vase,

emanating longing. Your immense life passes
in a reddened hour on board, a hundred years
blue-shifted into the increasing, unreturnable past.

They will hold you close no matter
how many silvery arms they have.

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"Wolf Moon," by Susan McLean

for Ursula K. Le Guin,
October 21, 1929–January 22, 2018

The Wolf Moon took her, and the blood moon mourned her.
O moon that pulled my tides, o little mother,
I loved how in your novels you switched gender
as one might toss off one dress for another.
And then you altered further: to my wonder,
you wrote The king was pregnant to uncover
the way language itself colludes to sever
female from male, the human from the other.
How can a world exist where one’s not lesser?
You showed me. But utopia means nowhere.
And then you changed again, yinward and lunar,
acknowledging that gender isn’t minor
or a handicap to suffer, but one factor
of many used to dictate who has power
and who does not. Nusuth, your Taoist answer,
it doesn’t matter, doesn’t mean surrender
to how things are. Rather, it means endeavor
to find your way from here. No one could stop her.
And yet she’s gone. Nusuth. It doesn’t matter.

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"Come Embrace Space," by Lauren McBride

—a sci(na)ku sonnet

Hurry,
astronaut wannabes,
vacationers in zero-g!

Book
your out-of-this-world
experience and getaway

today
by calling
“Affordable Space Vacations.”

Weightless
while still
safely on Earth.

Free trial included
with package deals.

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"Illiteracy," by Scott E. Green & Herb Kauderer

The invading alien paints himself in ashes
thinking to render himself invisible
to the olfactory senses of the Terrans
unclear on human reliance on vision and machines.

Warriors laugh at the ease
with which they apprehended
a race from beyond our solar system
and reputed to be advanced beyond human ken.

Interrogation experts go to work
trying to pry out the alien’s secrets,
linguists parse his spoken language
unaware that most of the meaning is in odors.

From behind steel prison walls
the alien sings of its civilization’s greatness
and it could thrill our souls
with the epics of its culture.

But Terrans cannot smell the delicate scents
by which it shares the heart of its soul
for they do not know how to read and sing
through their noses or the cells of their skins.

They can only wonder at why the alien is crying.

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"Shapeshifter Taxonomy," by A. C. Spahn

I.
Today you have three arms:
athlete Tribrachia athletus
parent Tribrachia parentus
chef Tribrachia archimagirus
Tribrachias all?
no no no, you are not
he she they we me me me me

II.
Today I have two mouths
for singing opera
not pop
Osduo cantoperatus
not cantopopulus
nomenclature of small differences

III.
Get out of my tiny box

IV.
Today I have thirteen eyes
just because
Tredecimoculis idontknowius
leave me out of
Your Vanity Vocabulary

V.
Tribrachia athletus
Tribrachia parentus
Tribrachia archimagirus
Osduo cantoperatus
Osduo cantopopulus
Tredecimoculis idontknowius
Shapeshifters
all

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Dragons & Rayguns * Vince Gotera
• President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
• From the Small Press • Herb Kauderer
• Stealth SF: Flying Blind • Denise Dumars
• XenoPoetry: Japanese Scifaiku and Tanka • Shouko Izuo (translated by Natsumi Ando)

Art

• Low Rounders • Denny E. Marshall
• First Time on a Swing • Christina Sng
• Squirm • Denny E. Marshall

Poetry

• [spewing] • Roxanne Barbour
• [spray of rocks] • Roxanne Barbour
• Workshop Exercise 21/08/2337: My Earliest Memories • David Jalajel
• UFO • David Barber
• [multiple moons] • David J Kelly
• [life sentence] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [their drone ship came to Earth] • Lauren McBride
• The Fallen Angel’s Ace of Wands • Mindy Watson
• Why aliens shun India • Arjun Rajendran
• [huckster moon] • Greer Woodward
• Never Trust a Vampiress • James Dorr
• [that] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• It’s Universal • Marsheila Rockwell
• Transported by Song • Herb Kauderer
• [easy mole removal?] • F. J. Bergmann
• A Cinephile Steps On-Screen • Alberto Sveum
• Symbiosis • Chris Galford
• [Striped gaiters, breather] • Denise Dumars
• Stone Clutched to Chest • Laura Madeline Wiseman & Andrea Blythe
• The Holy Firmament of Venus • Mary Soon Lee
• Measure • Banks Miller
• [alien worm—] • Susan Burch
• Widening Gyroscope • F. J. Bergmann
• [rising] • Roxanne Barbour
• Cost-Benefits Analysis of Being a Zombie • James Reinebold
• Till Death Do Us Part • Kathleen A. Lawrence
• [a GoFundMe account] • Beth Cato
• If Only I Could Sleep • G. O. Clark
• Hermes • Jonel Abellanosa
• Friends of Traitors • Matthew Wilson
• [bottle trees on Mars] • Sandra J. Lindow
• When Semi-Benevolent Aliens Conquer Earth • R. Mac Jones
• Cosmic Roshambo • John Richard Trtek
• [we’re leaving] • Robin Wyatt Dunn
• Oh No She Didn’t? • James Dorr
• [revealing] • Roxanne Barbour
• Archaeopteryx • Robert Borski
• [Terrans scooping gravel] • Lauren McBride
• Wolf Moon • Susan McLean
• [FTL propulsion achieved] • Lauren McBride & Jacob McBride
• [cosmology] • Katrina Archer
• Flight of Fantasy • crystalwizard
• [no need] • Susan Burch
• [we buried] • ayaz daryl nielsen
• alien sea beams • David J Kelly
• A Leaf Fairy Feels Under-Appreciated • Sharon Cote
• The Return • Ken Poyner
• The Cold Spot • Kimberly Nugent
• From the Zombie Hunters Field Guide: Tracking the Zombie • James Dorr
• [summer waits for him] • Holly Lyn Walrath
• [vampire job fair] • William Landis
• Data Value • Patricia Gomes
• [close encounter] • Susan Burch
• [Irresistible panhandling] • F. J. Bergmann
• From Antartican Vibranium Tankas • Eileen R. Tabios
• Ghazal • Joshua Gage
• Elixir Stores Open for Business! • Ronald A. Busse
• [the sound of black holes] • Alzo David-West
• Lost in the House of Hair • John W. Sexton
• [end of the road] • Greg Schwartz
• The Music of the Spheres • Mikal Trimm
• Come Embrace Space • Lauren McBride
• E pur si muove • Deborah L. Davitt
• [nothing’s so beautiful] • Alzo David-West
• [red shift] • David J Kelly
• [alien pool shark] • F. J. Bergmann
• Second Life • Davian Aw
• [eruption] • Roxanne Barbour
• [for sale: sweet cottage] • F. J. Bergmann
• Illiteracy • Scott E. Green & Herb Kauderer
• [outside the greenhouse] • Greg Schwartz
• The Young Transylvanian’s Guide to Dating: Taking Your Date Home • James Dorr
• [alien teenagers] • Susan Burch
• [prohibited] • Roxanne Barbour
• The Ghost Diet • Robert Borski
• Everything started with the Big Bang, they say • Juanjo Bazán
• [held to my ear] • F. J. Bergmann
• Red in the Morning • James B. Nicola
• [the prospect recedes] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [heat death of a universe] • F. J. Bergmann
• Missouri City, Texas, in a Far Tomorrow • José Chapa
• Intruders • Cindy O’Quinn
• [Looking at each star] • William Landis
• The Plague • Matthew Wilson
• Mermaid Warrior • Darrell Lindsey
• [star party] • Lauren McBride
• [Stiff with chill] • Denise Dumars
• Exfil • WC Roberts
• [class four body dies] • Holly Lyn Walrath
• [guys on a float trip] • William Landis
• Shapeshifter Taxonomy • A. C. Spahn