Online Issue Contents

• Wyrms & Wormholes

• Editor's Choice Poems
  • "Math and the Universe," by Richard Sim
  • "At the laundromat with Heisenberg," by Michelle Hartman
  • Untitled haiku by Alper Ghuchlu
  • "flotsampunk," by Gabriel Meek
  • "Frog in the Data Stream" by Katlina Sommerberg

• Full Table of Contents

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Wyrms & Wormholes: Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax—and Chairs

This year, in addition to taking on the editorspaceship here at Star*Line, I also became a chair—in addition to my usual time traveling and arson practice. Actually, the arson and transmogrification go together: I’m chairing the high school where I light students on fire.

People’s names have often been associated with their professions. Looking for someone to shoe your horse? Their descendant now bears the moniker Smith. And it’s fascinating to me that the person calculating was called a computer long before the machine usurped the name. “To compute” or “to chair” seems much more human. We are enlivened by verbing rather than being nouned. These sorts of distinctions seem increasingly important to me. One of my students regularly exclaimed her desire “to science” phenomena. In a world where “science” the noun is attacked, the verb form sneaks up from behind and declares its lineage, future dreams, and keeps jogging ahead. This is the power we wield.

In the immortal words of Bill and Ted, “Be excellent to each other!”

—John Reinhart, Star*Line Editor

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Editor's Choice Poems

"Math and the Universe," by Richard Sim

the equations that govern
the workings of the universe
written on the chalkboard
have a profound beauty

pure math a separate universe
existing in only thought
proofs of abstract concepts
span hundreds of pages

uncertainty theorems prove
we cannot know everything
irrational numbers like pi
last digit undiscoverable

quantum mechanics equations
matter in fields of probability
the math outside of logic yet
reality inexpressible without it

God is not in the equations

God is in the equations

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"At the laundromat with Heisenberg," by Michelle Hartman

Third plastic chair
left of vending machine
he’s always there
predicting which
customers forgot their detergent
if so, what brand they’ll buy
before the door closes. 

Agitating, tumbling machines
are a perfect example.
Casting lots for clothes
panties in the window
both will and will not
collide with push-up bra.
but cannot foretell their speed.

I let him do most of the talking.
I must hold my phone to my ear
pretend when I talk, so as not
to lose my laundry privileges.

We have great arguments like
the documentation and measurement
of photographs as proof of actions
tectonic to subatomic, and if they
disallow magic ability, since
creating other versions of that moment
are now impossible.

But Hi, that’s my pet name, contends
his Uncertainly Principle
conjures magical probabilities.

The impossibilities of measurement
a built-in fairy door
to matter manipulation. 
Nobel Laureates rolling
over in their graves, no way
to determine speed or duration
even if direction could be predicted
they might spin all the way up and walk.
We are planning to submit a paper.

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Untitled haiku by Alper Ghuchlu

future library
all science fiction books
remain in place

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"flotsampunk," by Gabriel Meek

the moon / Shoemaker / a dozen golf balls and

413,000 other pounds of earth / pinned pin

pins / Fallen Astronaut / intentionally crashed

operation abandoned / lander / system shunting

scattered strewed / Struan / teetering twisted

trireme / on the prowl / sky-bent prow / Peter Iredale

tide pools / plastic baby stroller wheels / rusty sand

La Circassienne au Bain / boots and bottles / GREAT LOSS
of potatoes / 1,196 bags / and film / 6 cases of insomnia

6 theater seats all in a row / box office / billions allocated for

airplanes and cosmetics / compact powder preserved

by coconut crabs / Lockheed Electra / antikythera

mech-suit / bastion battle brittle brick / Pacific

ringside seats to a volcanic eruption / prison-ship

book passage / plague flag / puncture-wound / powder

monkey / cut of cordage, dangle of rigging / Pirates of

so much life / Port Royal / soil liquefaction / tsunami

of timber-town torture / up-and-gone / Atlantean

circles / Dantean disasters / these so, these irretrievable

moments / drilling driftwood / sparks of color

flames flicker purple and gold / spanish galleon

plundered hold / recovery repatriation remuneration

reparation / shackles / Shackleton’s signature ship

shacks on the beach / sand in your hair / shoulders

within her reach / 29,000 rubber ducks / traced strafed

scraped from seawalls / levees / Beechcraft Bonanza

bathtubs and battleships / actually floats! / B4 hit

and soaring / hazard / ages 3 and up / accessories not

accepted to Star Fleet / aliens alliance / build up waste

loss excess / Roadster Starman / golden records / fuel

efficiency / frequency of cramming / available

space / the final frontier / these are the / Voyager I

bold / this small step will fade with time / Guardians of

tomorrow / straight on ’til / whenever we can see

the sky again

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"Frog in the Data Stream" by Katlina Sommerberg

Synapse-leap! Splash!
glowing pond of broken data 
ribbit—404

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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 * Denise Dumars, Art Holcomb, Lisa Timpf
• Stealth SF * “Is It Real or Is It Memorex?” * Denise Dumars
• SpecPo Publishing * Interview with John C. Mannone * Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Art

• Festival * Joe Vaux
• from Adventures in Skitzland * Charles Henry Allan Bennett
• Masked Masks Confronting COVID-16 * Donald Patten

Poetry

• At the laundromat with Heisenberg * Michelle Hartman
• Theory of Relativity * Sushant Malhotra
• [event horizon] * LeRoy Gorman
• Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star * Daniel Roop
• [salt marsh dusk] * Joshua St. Claire
• Your Clone Excavates the Then Before * Robert Frazier
• Write What You Know * Herb Kauderer
• scream at the unblinking stars * Rodrigo Culagovski R.
• Umbrella Cloud * Marisca Pichette
• Chasing Delicacies * Ken Poyner
• Time Jump to the Future * Lisa Timpf
• The Further Adventures of Schrödinger’s Cat * Robert Borski
• Red Cathedral * Art Holcomb
• Eclipse * Fatimah Akanbi
• Pull of Mars * Murray Eiland
• Five Gas Giants * Denny Marshall
• [on the alien’s list] * Lauren McBride
• After the bans, after the silence * Yuliia Vereta
• valuation * Crystal Sidell
• When the Waters Rise * Gerri Leen
• Sapiens * Jay Caselberg
• Evisceration Expanse * Liz Adair
• Postapocalyptica * S. L. Johnson
• Profile * David C. KopaskaMerkel & Terrie Leigh Relf
• Math and the Universe * Richard Simonds
• By the Numbers * John H. Dromey
• The Museum of Borrowed Gods * Fendy S. Tulodo
• Close Enough * Jason P. Burnham
• Boltzmann’s Byproducts * Beau Wilks
• [never felt comfy …] * Nicholas De Marino
• Timewalking * Josh Lytle
• [sorcerers’ convention] * Greg Schwartz
• Night at the Strip Bar * Colleen Anderson
• It Was the Cats * Colleen S. Harris
• [his teeth] * Greg Schwartz
• [de-extinct dodo] * Randall Andrews
• Love Is a Shapeshifter * William Shaw
• Of Maw and Moon * Nicholas De Marino
• [Extinction redux] * John R. Platt
• Maybe AI is the Messiah * Molly Likovich
• Frog in the Data Stream * Katlina Sommerberg
• NIMBY * Miguel O. Mitchell
• Dead People * Keech Ballard
• Night Office * F. J. Bergmann
• Ancient Forest Dreams * H. V. Patterson
• Mushroom Lung * Yuliia Vereta
• This Sacred Stumbling * Tessa McHattie
• [In orbit now around a world] * Lauren McBride
• Commute * Barry Charman
• [snowmelt] * Greg Schwartz
• [dragon’s teeth] * Greg Schwartz
• Godzilla At Little Bighorn: Alternate Earth, 1876 * Juan M. Perez
• Earthfall * A J Dalton
• [Born on Mars] * Barbara Candiotti
• [mandated brain chips] * Ngô Bình Anh Khoa
• flotsampunk * Gabriel Meek
• Flowered Wallpaper Follows You Everywhere * David Clink
• Ghost Star * Robert Borski
• They Are Not Spiders * Ian Willey
• Clockwise * Fatimah Akanbi
• Way Back * F. J. Bergmann
• A Fine Mold * M. Frost
• We are mothers of the universe * Richard Magahiz
• The Mask * Marge Simon
• The Machines We Taught to Pray * Art Holcomb
• [raging storm] * Greg Fewer
• Thick at the root *
• Richard Magahiz
• In Later Years * Timons Esaias
• Terraforming Mars * Garth Upshaw
• Out of Luck * Sarah Cannavo
• God Complex * Bree Wernicke
• The Umpires of Venus * R. Steve Benson
• When you are supposed to be the hero * M. Frost
• Home for Wanderers * Benjamin Whitney Norris
• [drawn in by …] * Julie Bloss Kelsey
• Taste of Atoms * Robin Reed
• Duality * Katherine Garrison
• Voice Erasure * Garrett Carroll
• Some Assembly Required * John H. Dromey
• The Nine Moons of Befana Major * Joshua Ginsberg
• How to Solve a 3x3 Life Cube * Nicholas De Marino
• Try It Out * Dolo Diaz
• Dead God Helpline * Ian Hunter
• Vibrations Matter * Martin Elster
• [ceiling vibrates] * Dennis Maulsby
• The Space Marine’s Errand * Jacob Bergstresser
• [future library] * Alper Ghuchlu