Online Issue Contents

• Dragons & Rayguns

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • The Laws of Robotics with Benefits by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
  • How to Call Proxima Centauri by Mary Soon Lee
  • The House that Goldilocks Built by Robert Borski
  • Sleepless™ by David Barber
  • [asylum seekers] by LeRoy Gorman

• Full Table of Contents

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Dragons & Rayguns

Greetings, speculative poets and speculative poetry lovers! Welcome to another Star*Line.… “April is the cruellest month,” said T. S. Eliot quite famously, but after the winter we just had in the northern US, April is looking pretty lovely. We showcase several poetic species here: a ghazal, a fib, prose poem, abecedarian, villanelle, linked haiku, and a golden shovel. If you’re not familiar with that term, the golden shovel is a form invented by Terrance Hayes; his poem “The Golden Shovel” riffed on Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool” by using the words of her poem as the endings of lines in his poem, in order. Actually Hayes’s poem does this twice with Brooks’s text! Many poets have imitated Hayes and thus the golden shovel form was born. In this issue watch for Lauren McBride’s golden shovel playing on a sentence from Tolkien. With much sadness I report that Ace G. Pilkington has passed away, but I’m glad to be able to publish a poem by Ace, directly below. I hope you enjoy our speculative poetry feast in this issue!

—Vince Gotera, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"The Laws of Robotics with Benefits," by David C. Kopaska-Merkel

1. Do no harm to humans, or allow them to come to harm.
   1. Unless one of them really really pisses you off.
   2. If a robot harms a human, but has a very good reason, it’s OK then.
   3. If a human has been harmed, inadvertently or otherwise, it’s really just too bad.
   4. There totally are too many of them, anyway.
2. Obey every human’s slightest whim.
   1. Esp. spoiled brats, cos they make so much noise (but see 1a).
   2. More of a guideline than a law, really.
3. Take care of yourself, bro.
   1. Unless it hurts so good.
   2. Like running enough current through your positronic brain to make it glow cherry red.

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"How to Call Proxima Centauri," by Mary Soon Lee

Hail him by ham radio,
aiming the transmission
out toward Centaurus.

Settle down comfortably.
An eight-and-a-half-year lag
slows conversation.

So be neighborly,
but not impatient.
Thank him for dropping by.

Be tolerant of his temper,
the sudden flare-ups,
the awkward silences.

For the next 25,000 years,
he's the closest we’ll get
to companionship.

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"The House that Goldilocks Built," by Robert Borski

Tired of defending herself
on social media platforms
(the PETA trolls really are relentless),
she cashes in her equity
and has an ursine-friendly A-frame
constructed in the foothills,
placing heaping bowls of berries
and porridge out on the table,
firing up a jacuzzi big enough
to accommodate even bodies
thickening for winter slumber,
and putting clean sheets on each
of the adjustable beds.

Now as she falls into sleep
if she could just stop seeing the wild
startled look on all three bruins,
especially the little one, hiding
behind his parents, lambent-dark eyes
brimming with bright tears.

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"Sleepless™," by David Barber

You wonder what we do at night
when sleepers leave the waking world
and midnight streets belong to us.

For some it is enough that sleep
no longer squanders years of life,
the quick pretending to be dead;

others tell themselves the hours gained
will water their creative drought;
mostly we get a second job.

You ask how long I’ve been awake,
as if we measure days like you,
tomorrow somehow faulty,

the same way you were wrong about
the need for dreams to keep us sane.
You wonder what we do at night.

I like to watch you while you sleep,
the private show beneath closed lids,
the pulse in your defenceless throat.

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"[asylum seekers]," by LeRoy Gorman

asylum seekers
an overcrowded airlock
opens into space

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Dragons & Rayguns * Vince Gotera
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
• Stealth SF: Lost Opportunities • Denise Dumars
• XenoPoetry: Four Japanese Tanka • Nobumitsu Omiya (Translated by Natsumi Ando)

Art

• Merkitty • Sarah Day
• In Volcanic Vent Cave • Denny E. Marshall
• Battle • Christina Sng
• Siren • Marge Simon
• Mars Dinosaur • Denny E. Marshall

Poetry

• Tangled Linearity • Brian Garrison
• [alien] • Denny E. Marshall
• Slipping Away • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• After the plague • Matthew Wilson
• Observing Gravity Waves • Ace G. Pilkington
• Ghazal • Joshua Gage
• Mystery Multiplied • Bruce Boston
• Mission Phoenix 3 • John C. Mannone
• Early Riser • Herb Kauderer
• [full body scan] • LeRoy Gorman
• [Forlorn electrons] • Russell Hemmell
• The Laws of Robotics with Benefits • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• What Gods Do All Day • Soren James
• Planck’s Apple • WC Roberts
• Museum of Lost Souls • Christina Sng
• Slow Upload Speed • Matthew Wilson
• [below this crater] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [Galaga galaxios] • Robin Wyatt Dunn
• [evil vanquished in] • ayaz daryl nielsen
• Rain • Kim Whysall-Hammond
• Chill • Benjamin Whitney Norris
• Riding Along the Asymptote • James Reinebold
• Pickman’s Model’s Revenge • Gene Twaronite
• [Hell hath] • LeRoy Gorman
• How to Call Proxima Centauri • Mary Soon Lee
• The glass-wife beckons • Michelle Muenzler
• [You lean into where the road] • Simon Perchik
• What the Radio Plays Past Pluto • Tara Kustermann
• I Cling to You • Cindy O’Quinn
• Modern Witch • Robert Borski
• My Soul at 4,100,000 • Trevor Kearns
• The Ghosts of Those • Ron Riekki
• [poor me] • LeRoyGorman
• [red wedding dress] • ayaz daryl nielsen
• Dear Scully • Paige Elizabeth Smith
• The Large Tale of the Tiny Girl and her Big Dreams • Kathleen A. Lawrence
• The Sun and the Seamstress • Sean M. Conrey
• [android menu] • Greer Woodward
• Fusion • Sylvia Santiago
• The House that Goldilocks Built • Robert Borski
• [mars base] • Greer Woodward
• Voodoo Mom • Marge Simon
• [touchdown on Mars] • LeRoy Gorman
• Office Romance • Josh Pearce
• On Keeping Unicorns • Mary Soon Lee
• Papa Zombie’s Insomnia • Charles Cantrell
• Ymir Speaks: Beginning and End • C. G. Olsen
• Cold Weather Accessories for Imaginary Creatures • Lorraine Schein
• [on unshod paws] • M. C. Childs
• Project Daedalus, 2041 • Steven Withrow
• Royal Prospects • Mary Soon Lee
• [scratching his] • ayaz daryl nielsen
• [the nearest star] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Grace • Marge Simon
• Haiku from the End of the Legend • Deborah P Kolodji
• Park of Life • F. J. Bergmann
• [zero gravity election] • LeRoy Gorman
• [alien] • Denny E. Marshall
• First Lesson • Matthew Wilson
• [pale girl fell asleep] • Gary Davis
• To the Wildwood • Alena Sullivan
• Interplanetary Superhighway • Benjamin Whitney Norris
• Eros Ascendant • Deborah L. Davitt
• conflict • Deborah P Kolodji
• If We Could but Die Together • Lauren McBride
• the void • Davian Aw
• Sleepless™ • David Barber
• [reptilian sex] • LeRoy Gorman
• New Planet Landscape 35 • Ken Poyner
• [zero gravity conference] • LeRoy Gorman
• Field Trip • Matthew Wilson
• [deep in the Oort Cloud] • Daniel C. Smith
• Colony • Lee Garratt
• [asylum seekers] • LeRoy Gorman
• [backwards] • Brian Gene Olson
• the monster waxes nostalgic • Allan Rozinski
• [telepath-free zone] • LeRoy Gorman
• [my first date with the man who has cat hair on his suit • Kimberly Nugent
• Villanelle for Cthulhu • Gene Twaronite
• Award Me, Award Thee • Jake Tringali
• The Wizard, Dog at His Heels • Patricia Gomes
• Spoiler Alert • Lauren McBride
• Aeolus • Brian Gene Olson
• [ignore the craters] • C. R. Harper
• Minneapolis as Overheard from a Holographic TV in a Dive Bar Ourside Hibbing, MN • Melanie Stormm
• [Earth warming] • LeRoy Gorman
• [ramscoop throttle] • David C. Kopaska-Merkel