Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • Graves on Miranda by Deborah L. Davitt
  • Solar System Wake-up by Deborah P Kolodji
  • Time Travelers’ Convention Guide by Robert Borski
  • How to Advertise Titan by Mary Soon Lee
  • Obsessive-Compulsive Venusian Checks List of Surviving Earthlings by Ronald A. Busse

• Full Table of Contents

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Dragons & Rayguns

Welcome to another issue of Star*Line!

This is my last issue as editor. I have loved curating these pages for you and I have made many friends among the ranks of speculative poets.

Over the last three years, I have been privileged to publish many poems in forms both traditional and recently invented. I have also included much light verse. And featured an interesting variety of speculative art, especially physical items, such as Virgil Suarez’s cyberpunk VW on the cover of 41.3 (Summer 2018), Calyn McLeod’s textile dragon in 43.2 (Winter 2020), and in this issue, a mixed-media painting with a 3D ladder made of wire that extends out from the canvas.

It has been a great joy to serve the community of speculative poets. I would like to thank the SFPA officers, esp. President Bryan Thao Worra. And I wish F. J. Bergmann the best as she takes over the Star*Line helm.

Keep writing your wonderful poems, everyone! And stay well.

—Vince Gotera, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"Graves on Miranda," by Deborah L. Davitt

Verona Rupes is
a cliff over twice the height
of Everest on Earth—
there’s rock here, but ice, too,
primordial, left over
from the accretion disc
of the entire solar system,
but it’s grainy, gritty,
littered with black carbon nodules—
ejecta spray from meteors,
the burnt remains
of the ghostly Uranian rings.

When you climb here,
there are no resting places,
no Sherpa camps.
You sleep cradled by ropes,
under the jade gaze
of a cold gas giant,
an endless fall beneath your feet

Even in dream-light gravity
there are no shortcuts to the top
human hands and feet
still must find ledges to grip
sweat still stings your eyes
inside your helmet
thought there’s little effort,
little force needed
to bound from boulder to seam.

But if you slip, the final impact
might not be what kills you—
the slide of your body along the rock,
the friction tearing up your suit,
the hose that snaps, unable to endure
both the chill of the icy surface
and the shock of your descent.

There are as many dead bodies
frozen at the foot of this scarp
as there are graves on Everest,
sacrifices to the spirit of ambition;
and like the primordial ice,
like the ejecta spray,
if you die here,
you’ll be immortalized,
preserved for all the rest of time.

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"Solar System Wake-up," by Deborah P Kolodji

eggs sunny side up
breakfast
on Mercury

melted butter
the cloud city
above Venus

home planet breakfast in bed

marsquake
a pancake landslide
on Olympus Mons

above my coffee
above Jupiter
whipped cream clouds

a ring of ice
in the punchbowl
brunch around Saturn

iced coffee
cooler than I’d like it
Uranus

orbiting Neptune
the bluest
blueberry tea

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"Time Travelers’ Convention Guide," by Robert Borski

Upon arrival to Chrononautica, please set
your timepieces to Zulu Galactic.

If you meet yourself coming/going as a previous
or future iteration, it’s best to feign unfamiliarity.

Service animals are welcome for the most part,
but once again we are banning the presence
of therapy ’saurs. (Click “Velociraptor Incident”
in the program index for further details. Advance
trigger warning for Graphic Violence.)

Do not attempt to alter or override ID chips
as Management does not want to have
another Morlock-Neanderthal brouhaha.

Our special theme for this plenum’s costume ball
is “Assassination and the Retconning of History.”

Make sure you have all your shots. As always,
the convention will not be held responsible
for paratime illness or chronodivergent STDs.

For those suffering from temporary chrono-lag
or the inability to parse continuities,
the Santayana Lounge is an excellent place to unwind.

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"How to Advertise Titan," by Mary Soon Lee

No need to mislead; no need to imply
that Saturn’s rings nobly straddle our sky.

No need to gloss over the cold dark days,
every view shrouded in dull orange haze.

No need to promote the pristine terrain
as if all our lakes weren’t frigid methane.

No need to highlight low radiation,
or hide the cost of a short vacation.

Sufficient to know that here we can fly,
riding the heights of the dim orange sky.

For gravity’s grasp’s too slight to prevent
our flight through thick air, our golden ascent.

Nothing else matters besides our wings;
soaring in glory, like eagles, like kings.

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"Obsessive-Compulsive Venusian Checks List of Surviving Earthlings," by Ronald A. Busse

Instructions: Using a #12X pencil only, check off all names that apply.

Better erase that check mark,
it looks a little shaky, a little
crooked. Nope, now it’s too narrow.
Erase it and try again. Wait—
I have to pop on yet another pencil-top eraser.
There, it just fits over the empty metal ferrule
that looked like a tiny open tin can before
you repeatedly punctured it with your fang.

Now . . . take a deep breath of fresh carbon dioxide . . .
and try again.
Nope, too big compared to the two
check marks above it – one of which, I see
if I rotate the form, is slightly higher
than the other. Better erase just a teensy
bit off the top of that one.
Too much, even it out.
Now the other one is too short.
erase . . . erase . . . erase
Now they look like lowercase v’s!
Wait for the invisible graphite to disappear and start over again.

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * Vince Gotera
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Bryan Thao Worra
• Stealth SF: Séance on a Wet Afternoon • Denise Dumars
• XenoPoetry: Spanish Speculative Poetry • Elaine Vilar Madruga (translated by Toshiya Kamei)

Art

• Guitar Bot • David Shultz
• Robot Dance • Boris Grann & Neil Strahl
• Alien Dinosaur #1 • Denny E. Marshall
• The Arrival • Christina Sng
• Pyramid Galaxy • Denny E. Marshall

Poetry

• he scores • Beth Cato & Rhonda Parrish
• Cold War • David Barber
• Monster • Sarah Cannavo
• The Phoenix • Lynne Sargent
• Dragons Guard Our Family Fortune • Adele Gardner
• Assumption • F. J. Bergmann
• The Candle • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [aliens arrive] • Denny E. Marshall
• [covid-19 spreads] • Alzo David-West
• Ms. S. White, Single • Kathleen A. Lawrence
• Spacely Space Sprockets Wants You! • Alan Ira Gordon
• Medusa • Frank De Canio
• Future Past • David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [saving species two by two] • Lauren McBride
• Graves on Miranda • Deborah L. Davitt
• A Ray of Sun • James Dorr
• Social Media Senryu: @StillWaiting • T. R. Jones
• Two Legs • Carrie Clark
• [t)here] • LeRoy Gorman
• For the Good of the People Career • Lauren McBride
• In Love • Debby Feo
• eschatology • Joshua Hiles
• Hell Is Hiring • Jim Davies
• Thaumaturgy • Paul Szlosek
• Solar System Wake-up • Deborah P Kolodji
• The Imp and the Bottle • Sharon Cote
• [Caustic flakes float down] • John Caulkins
• Solar Blindness • Cassandra Rose Clarke
• Welcome to 3901 SW Chile Drive • Mack W. Mani
• Beyond the Oort Cloud • Jared Benjamin
• Darker Urges Still • S. T. Gibson
• Love Per an Alien Star • Bethany Powell
• What Goes There? • Christopher Fried
• [gravity] • Denny E. Marshall
• * • Simon Perchik
• Sailing the Seas of Lune • Robert Borski
• Neon in Robot Head • Coleman Bomar
• Pursuit • Carrie Clark
• Loving Enchantresses • Lorraine Schein
• A Minute Before the End • Eva Papasoulioti
• Time Travelers’ Convention Guide • Robert Borski
• Query the Ghost • Juan Perez
• How to Advertise Titan • Mary Soon Lee
• Midmorph Madness • Debby Feo
• Expired Copyright • Matthew Wilson
• From the Final Writings of Dr. M. E. Claridge • Elizabeth McClellan
• The Great Escape • Matthew Wilson
• The Human Exhibit • Matthew Pritt
• They Climbed Aboard that Starship • Bill Abbott
• Lycanthropy • Lauren McBride
• The Affairs of Beasts • Sarah Grey
• A Public Place • Matthew Wilson
• We Love What Remains • William Shaw
• Stalker in the Night! • Adam Ford
• Obsessive-Compulsive Venusian Checks List of Surviving Earthlings • Ronald A. Busse
• [the invader doth] • Alzo David-West
• [he sneaks in her cell] • Gary Davis
• Puppet of Wrath, Man of Ruin • Maxwell I. Gold
• The Apocalypse According to My Name • Elaine Vilar Madruga (translated by Toshiya Kamei)
• El apocalipsis según mi nombre • Elaine Vilar Madruga
• A Vampire’s Lament • John Grey
• [Martian red truffles] • Karl Lykken