Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • "L^p" by Madeline Barnicle
  • "Fruit of the Tree" by Jamal Hodge
  • "Safe Words for Soft Beings" by Lesley Hart Gunn
  • "Thawless" by Lorraine Schein

• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: Moon Rocks

I grew up on Jay Williams’ Danny Dunn series, on Heinlein, on Clarke, on LeGuin. Before that, I remember telling my parents that one day I’d go to the moon; I’d bring back some moon rocks for a mantel that we didn’t have.

I fell into speculative poetry by accident. A fellow writer at a writing group my father-in-law invited me to attend while visiting him offhandedly said, That poem has some speculative elements. Why don’t you submit it to Asimov’s? I didn’t, but that comment opened a wormhole to worlds I never imagined. A decade ago, F. J. Bergmann accepted that short poem for Star*Line. I was hooked

Now I’m embarking on a new adventure: honored to assume the editor position here at Star*Line. There aren’t any moon rocks around here to send home, but I look forward to collecting your gems for the journal.

—John Reinhart, Star*Line Editor

Editor's Choice Poems

"L^p," by Madeline Barnicle

What the professor said:
All metric spaces are equivalent.

What the professor meant:
You can cover any square
with a hundred shining circles,
or you can fill any circle
with a thousand perfect diamonds.
If you can get somewhere as the crow flies
then you can get there by taxicab,
even if it takes a little longer,
or by train, at least once a day.
If you can imagine a neighbor
outside the boundary of your city,
then you can stretch an epsilon farther,
reach out, and draw a stranger close.

What the student in the back row wrote down:
The cosmos is discrete.
You need to build a teleporter
to ensure everyone is equidistant:
your mom, your cousin, the mayor,
the president, somebody in another time zone,
another continent, galaxy, century,
a bonobo, whale, sequoia.
If, at any given moment,
you are not a crowsflight away
from any or all of these neighbors,
divide by zero and start over.

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"Fruit of the Tree," by Jamal Hodge

Given the knowledge
of good and evil,
her first act,
was to share.

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"Safe Words for Soft Beings," by Lesley Hart Gunn

for membraned beings with electro-
organelles, pulsations
to communicate acceptance
the word         Ocean

for beings with crusted mouths
wide eyes dark pools of stars
reflecting generations
the word         Ache

for microscopic organisms, data
drunk with heavy minds, adhering
to each other to create giants
the word         Aspen

for clefted ears and strained voices
raw from constant war vocalizations
and no need for sleep
the word         Pacify

for gods without imperfection
bodies without age, life
without end, without purpose
the word         Patience

for sandstone creatures encasing
metamorphic minds volcanic
insides, immobile outsides
the word         Spirit

for fire breathers, singed
feathers and sharp claws
who attack without cause
the word         Resist

for hydrogen filled
orb-shaped glowing spheres
without central processing or language
the word         Existence

for one-winged, one-eyed
single-hearted beasts,
planet bound, skyward dreaming
the word         Balance

for wormhole born, time
wearied, universally empathic
sky-nymphs
the word         Daydream

for soft-bellied, terra torn
loved and lost diasporic beings
cradled in the unfolding expansion
of space, the word
Home

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"Thawless," by Lorraine Schein

snowmen
yearning for the warm touch
of a snowwoman to melt with

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Full Table of Contents

Departments

• Wyrms & Wormholes * John Reinhart
• SFPA Announcements
• President’s Message * Brian U. Garrison
• From the Small Press * Herb Kauderer, Lisa Timpf
• Stealth SF * “What is Speculative Poetry” * Denise Dumars
• SpecPo Publishing * Interview with Betsy Aoki * Jean-Paul Garnier

Art

• Mars Discovery * Pete Kornowski
• Reception * Denny E. Marshall

Poetry

• If They Call * Lisa Timpf
• Hello, Out There * Judith Yarrow
• A Martian garden story * Diem Okoye
• spacetime discontinuum * Howard V. Hendrix
• Main sequence * Simon Kaeppeli
• Planet X * Barbara Candiotti
• L^p * Madeline Barnicle
• [hydrogen] * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• [toenail clippings] * LeRoy Gorman
• Roy Batty, I would have travelled with you * B. Anne Adriaens
• [zero-g kissing] * Lauren McBride
• A Column of Black Lace * Denise Dumars
• Acoustic Abodes * D. A. Xiaolin Spires
• [sunrise] * LeRoy Gorman
• Vocal Rest * Sarah Cannavo
• Aquatint Yonder * Bernardo Villela
• The Stew * Brian Rosenberger
• Lights * Nicholas De Marino
• [teen party] * Jay Friedenberg
• burnt offerings * arukoya tomais
• The Laika Martyrology * Meg Smith
• Woof * Jean-Paul L. Garnier
• Terran Uptight about Terraforming * Lauren McBride
• SpaceDepot * Osmani Ochoa
• Inner View * John H. Dromey
• Cosmic Bookends * Scout Clancy Batreau
• sweeping: a unitoum * Crystal Sidell
• It Still Flies Fine * Gerri Leen
• Time Signatures * Dana Wall
• RIP First Explorers * Matthew Wilson
• Chronovirus * A J Dalton
• [The White Rabbit] * Sarah Cannavo
• Evasion * David C. Kopaska-Merkel
• Misled * Sarah Cannavo
• [alone with the CEO] * Joshua St. Claire
• Space Turtle * Randall Andrews
• Alligators and You * Herb Kauderer
• Etiquette is Etiquette * Michael H. Payne
• True Love * Michael H. Payne
• It is all around * Richard Magahiz
• Sunstorm * Deborah L. Davitt
• Evolution in Colony Ship HVAC Systems … * Jason Burnham
• Celestial Worm * Darius Jones
• Ziroonderel * S R Tombran
• Princess Bride * James Arthur Anderson
• The Truth About Trees * Daniel Ausema
• Fruit of the Tree * Jamal Hodge
• Anna’s Hummingbird * Terri Yannetti
• As My Soul Becomes Water * Devan Barlow
• [dripping wet] * Sarah Cannavo
• Moonglade * Nicholas De Marino
• the new great race * D. A. Xiaolin Spires
• Old Skipping Rhyme * Silvatiicus Riddle
• Programmer's SciFaiku * Larina Warnock
• The Teacher Gains a Demonic Student * Beth Cato
• Twist * Roger Dutcher
• Romeroverse * Robert Borski
• [Exoskeleton] * Elizabeth Fletcher
• Terror Forming * Philip Madden
• Magical Science of Little Consequence * Robert Frazier
• Separate Breeds * Herb Kauderer
• Sayra and Sojourn * Garrett Carroll
• Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age * Richard Magahiz
• Transhuman * Anna Cates
• Three recipes from the Uncanny Mixologist’s Guide to Home Brewing * Melissa Ridley Elmes
• Sod Fingers * Murray Eiland
• Blood Hypotenuse, Ghost Ink * Robert Borski
• FTL * F. J. Bergmann
• Timeline Hypernexus Pileup * Pixie Bruner
• Sparkle * John C. Mannone
• and holes in the roof to welcome rain * Marisca Pichette
• Automated Oblivion * Ken Poyner
• Safe Words for Soft Beings * Lesley Hart Gunn
• Robot Lullaby * Mary Soon Lee
• Love Among Water Lilies * Gretchen Tessmer
• The Blight Sky * Gretchen Tessmer
• For its hunger could not end * Alper Ghuchlu
• What If Stephen King Wrote a Declaration to Independence? * Juan Perez
• Tinnitus * Robert Borski
• geomancy * Marisca Pichette
• The Dodos of Deimos * Mary Soon Lee
• Urgent Meeting of the Earth Creation Gamers * Cynthia Forbes
• Thawless * Lorraine Schein
• Galactic Graffiti * John H. Dromey
• back shout when you wanna get off the ride * Anna Weaver
• The Cathedral Gargoyle * Kendall Evans
• [latest brain implant] * Ngô Bình Anh Khoa