Online Issue Contents

• Dragons & Rayguns

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • New Year’s Resolutions by Mary Soon Lee
  • Giants in the Earth by Deborah L. Davitt
  • Blocked by Robert Borski
  • Self-Portrait as Pretty Monster by Jeannine Hall Gailey
  • Paprika Dust by D. A. Xiaolin Spires

• Full Table of Contents

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Dragons & Rayguns

Happy New Earth-Orbit, Terrans and other sentient beings, terrestrial and extraterrestrial! As always, we offer you the proverbial veritable feast of speculative poetry, reviews, articles, art, and news. Again in this issue, as we had throughout the 2018 volume year, the SFPA’s 40th anniversary celebration year, we have cover art created by a poet: Robert Frazier, SFPA Grandmaster and former editor of this magazine. I hope you enjoy this issue, dear friends in specpo, and I wish you all—bilateral and asymmetrical—the best poetry year ever!

—Vince Gotera, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"New Year’s Resolutions," by Mary Soon Lee

1. For novices

Huddle in the Antarctic dark
with emperor penguins
for sixty-four days.

Irrigate Mars (canals preferred).

Memorize the first ten thousand primes.
•

2. For journeymen

Endow peahens with plumage
eclipsing that of peacocks.

Circumnavigate the Moon by hot-air balloon
(add appropriate atmosphere in advance).

Prove the Riemann hypothesis.
•

3. For advanced practitioners

Travel to 17th-century Mauritius
to retrieve dodos.

Rearrange the rings of Saturn.

Make π rational.

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"Giants in the Earth," by Deborah L. Davitt

“There were giants in the earth in those days—”
Pish, there’ve always been giants around!
It’s just that we tune them out,
pretend that we can’t see them.

I mean, if Paul Bunyan was so big
that he tripped and his hands formed
the Finger Lakes? You know what they
say about big hands and big feet.

If everything’s in proportion,
why, he’d have to bend his wife
over a mountain range to hit her G-spot,
and his morning wood might be a sequoia.

And if he’s got her sunnyside up?
Well, you know how the Grand Tetons
got their name. Where’s her clitoris?
I’m sure he’s asked that, too.

Turns out he found it, but only when
they honeymooned the next planet over,
and screwed among the Mons Veneris—
I hear she gushed lava for a week.

That’s why we do it! Who’d want to see
them going at it? It’s not as if they can
actually get a room; there’s none big enough!
So instead we politely pretend

not to notice what’s going on
as a geyser explodes in front of us,
ignore the shaking of the earth
from the roll and sway of their hips,

and they pretend not to be bothered by
the pictures we take of them in flagrante delicto—
Still we never get everything in frame
at once; so it’s not porn, but art.

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"Blocked," by Robert Borski

Dear Wollstonecraft (Member #1797):
We are sorry, but Member #1851
has filed a stalking and harassment
complaint against you.

Per contractual agreement, we must now
ask you to refrain from any further contact
with her, whether through the auspices
of our website or otherwise. Your email
and chat session privileges will certainly
be suspended otherwise.

“Elsa Lancaster” will thus no longer
be available for graveyard picnics,
lightning-photographing sessions,
or as arm candy at this year’s Mad
Scientists Convention.

Also, while we’re discussing errant
behavior, let us again remind you
not to send any further candid selfies
of your “Promethean baby-maker.”
(Surely, given its pigmentation,
a late addition to your post-revival phase,
am I right?)

Agree to these terms and we here
at I♥MONSTERS.com will be happy
to continue to provide our specialty service
to those of your much maligned, but
no less worthy of love, kind.

Sincerely,
MBS
Director of Outreach Services

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"Self-Portrait as Pretty Monster," by Jeannine Hall Gailey

Not all monsters have tentacles and pointed teeth.
Some of us have smooth shiny hair, rosy cheeks and friendly smiles.

After the pandemics and maelstroms, I learned more about being a monster.
We became mutants and we were built for subsistence.

We ate mushrooms grown in closets and picked sorrel and
watercress from streams. We learned to befriend animals like wolves

and bears to lead us to better prey. We learned to crack bones
with rough hands. Our insides were no longer normal.

Some of us glowed at night, which proved helpful
during the periodic blackouts, now that the sun had lost

some of its luster in the permanent smog. We forgot
which of us were leaders, so we all followed

our own paths, drowning dreams and watching the firelight.
Some of us studied microscopes and made up cures.

We forgot our names, but we learned what we were.
Out here in the last gleaming, we cultivated fear of shadows.

We became murderous. We taught poison and trigger and weighing
down pockets with stones. We learned our language

with new tongues. We learned the magic of survival in a suitcase.
You won’t recognize me as the monster, but if I enter your home,

beware the magic of moonlight, the quick movements
that bewitch. Beware the gold in my hair, the flamingo dress

and the ruby lips, the blood smear on my skin, the smell of smoke in the air,
uranium in the dirt and grass, the last flare of green fire.

Underneath my skin is some other story, a story of evolution and desire,
vectors and radiation burns, that ends in extermination.

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"Paprika Dust," by D. A. Xiaolin Spires

The Sandman sprinkles
dust in my eyes—

Cinnamon, paprika.

I hear the whispers of
a gruff man groaning,
“Goshdarnit, this ain’t
sleep sand,
Marta packed us
the wrong bags
again.”

“Mm,” I say as I crash—

Wisps of another world,
savoring the physics of
other dimensions, floating,
falling, tingly and spicy.

I wake up, not with sleep
in my eyes,
but with
bell pepper,
jaranda,
jariza—

pimentón
agridulce

tears.

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Dragons & Rayguns * Vince Gotera
• President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
• From the Small Press • Rebecca Buchanan, Herb Kauderer, Diane Severson Mori, Lisa Timpf
• Stealth SF: Where Shall I Pour My Dream? • Denise Dumars
• XenoPoetry: Untitled • Shiyi Li (Translated by D. A. Xiaolin Spires)

Art

• Night Stop • Robert Frazier
• Lies the Tree Told • Christina Sng
• Worlds Collide • Christina Sng
• Stroller • Denny E. Marshall
• Esmeralda • Marge Simon

Poetry

• New Year’s Resolutions • Mary Soon Lee
• [thought we’d found] • Lauren McBride
• [time machine testing begins] • Lauren McBride
• A Deity Goes Too Far • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• epilogue • Brittany Hause
• Mothra • Robert Borski
• The Fairy T.A.Z. • Lorraine Schein
• Titanium Sheen • Russell Hemmell
• The Day the Dragons Returned • Jacqueline West
• On a Dead Spaceship • Robin Helweg-Larsen
• White Silk-Lined Casket • Jessica Drake-Thomas
• Not Tonight • Kathleen A. Lawrence
• Life on Uranus • Christina Sng
• Does it have cup holders? • Gretchen Tessmer
• NonLinear B • Denise Dumars & s. c. virtes
• [happy ending—] • Carolyn M. Hinderliter
• [new baby robot] • Denny E. Marshall
• Rocket Autumn • Aaron Knuckey
• Space Junked (LA Ramjet) • Benjamin Whitney Norris
• [last supper] • Greg Schwartz
• [eternal life …] • Greg Schwartz
• The Cook • P M F Johnson
• Pregnant™ • David Barber
• [after hypnotherapy] • Christina Sng
• Styx and Bones • Gretchen Tessmer
• Giants in the Earth • Deborah L. Davitt
• [“Eject” button] • Noel Sloboda
• [Oort cloud slam] • LeRoy Gorman
• Overodd (Er)go Self-Installation • J. P. Brown
• [pets] • Christina Sng
• [her gentle kisses] • ayaz daryl nielsen
• Property of Hansel and Gretel • Matthew Wilson
• In the Vast Underground Cities of Mars • Mary Jo Rabe
• [For her who laid and hatched my egg] • Ronald A. Busse
• [“hey!”] • ayaz daryl nielsen
• [even as queen] • Christina Sng
• Unicorn Care • Mary Soon Lee
• Paleopoets Speak • Mickey Kulp
• [lingerie fetish] • F. J. Bergmann
• Blocked • Robert Borski
• [burying the alien] • Christina Sng
• [like the moon] • F. J. Bergmann
• cyborg teambuilding • F. J. Bergmann
• [winter chill] • LeRoy Gorman
• The Farm • Josh Brown
• a nano message • D. A. Xiaolin Spires
• [fossil star in shale] • F. J. Bergmann
• [dawn chill on Enceladus] • F. J. Bergmann
• [crumpled behemoth] • Marcus Vance
• Willowisp • Lynne Sargent
• [protected old growth] • LeRoy Gorman
• Drunk on Spring • Symantha Reagor
• [Earth a blue speck] • F. J. Bergmann
• the way home • Michelle Muenzler
• loose change • Allan Rozinski
• My Fault • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [lost twin] • Christina Sng
• Organic Traffic • Cornelius Fortune
• [the feeling] • Christina Sng
• What You Hear When Your Best Friend Falls for a Supervillain • Beth Cato
• In Situ • Charlotte Ozment
• Esmeralda • Marge Simon
• heavy-planet dreams • Peter Roberts
• Amphitrite • Cassandra Rose Clarke
• [odor of lilies] • Alzo David-West
• The Mantids’ Moirai • Mindy Watson
• The Child • David Barber
• [immortality] • Christina Sng
• [By sheer coincidence] • Jeffrey Park
• [second opinion] • Carolyn M. Hinderliter
• It Is Said • Lisa Timpf
• [time machine] • Denny E. Marshall
• Balancing Act • D. A. Xiaolin Spires, Deborah L. Davitt & Gretchen Tessmer
• Self-Portrait as Pretty Monster • Jeannine Hall Gailey
• Why You Should Buy Your Loved One a Final Resting Place on Sepulcrum Minor • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
• Quantum Hearts • Stace Johnson
• Snubbed • Mary Soon Lee
• [bustling city] • Marcus Vance
• Paprika Dust • D. A. Xiaolin Spires
• [cinnamon tentacles, cardamom suckers] • D. A. Xiaolin Spires
• Noble Cinquains • John Caulkins