012021c

 

On the mushroom planet, everyone is a ghoul. On mosquito world, the vampire is queen. But no one wants to visit the planet of the hominins

041020c

The Hosta looked like giant celery plants, but Mame was unpleasantly surprised by their reaction to nibbling. And they don't like peanut butter.

112319c

These huge bones,

arching from dune to dune,

mappable from space,

this pitiless waste's only shade.

Paleontologists disinter flippers

meters long, billennia old,

their bones curiously like those of Earth,

when last was there a Martian sea?

092619

under this rock
those furred things once ruled this world
quick! need more for dinner

090619c

if the Great Red Storm had dissipated
just a century sooner
the city might have survived
not sunk to the crushing depths
leaving no trace
the diaphanous wind sailors
never built another
before the harvesters came
from Earth

041119

eviction notice
DNA-based life
wasn't the first

032619d

A globe of nested Flatlands
never in contact with one another
never aware that the others exist
till one day, flat scientists
find a way to travel between
the concentric dimensions
the Russian-doll worlds

at first
the wonder of it all
billions more places to explore
trillions more people to meet
than anyone had ever imagined
inevitably though
war broke out
started small
some kind of border dispute
or religious disagreement
burned ultimately
through all the worlds

when the 3D folk
stumbled upon this wonder
they found nothing but
tons and tons
of charred paper
adorned with peculiar shapes
that never moved

031919c

no rust
on this airless world
billion-year-old tools

020119

Aliens built a civilization here long ago

Some fool dropped the only skull we ever found of them.  If we had horses, if we had men, if we had kings for that matter, none of that would help. It burst into powder when it hit.

013019b

the balloon heads
were unfailingly polite
you could hear a pin drop

012319c

White dwarf
in your rings of cinders

who once thanked you
for your glow?

121018

Aliens Who Want Our Women

It’s flirting with you

You don’t know?

See any others waving extrusions around?

How about now?

Blowing bubbles!

A big pre-mating ritual on this planet

Holy shit!

Removing its heart is unequivocal

It’s hefting it

Look out!

Take your shirt off

Their blood is highly toxic.

My my my

He’s leaving?

Well, uh

Guess you didn’t jiggle

I mean, respond, appropriately

Give you my shirt?

I guess that’s fair.

Hey, where you going?

No, I promise!

I didn’t pay him to help me

See your tits!

How could you even think that?

Come back…

She’ll be back.

120618b

no election fraud
but government in chaos
Martians steal the House

112218

we
are
thanking
you for gift
succulent envoys
have been much appreciated
one request: next time send only the young and plump please

111418

Gibberish


Inspired views of
The many worlds
Reading it, mad
One truly understands
But can no longer communicate

A tongue with brownian syntax
Computer-generated randomization
Which is never truly random
May make sense after transformation

Attempted uccupation
"Take me to your leader"
But you are already there

Stray impulses
Working the wild larynx

And now, we truly understand

092318

Martian canals

tree-lined waterways
gondolas picked up streamside passengers

canals are dune-choked now
skull rolls from
an oversteepened bank

080618c

evolution
has been so fast on this world
resources  used up
technology sucked it dry
where did the survivors go

071318

The Wrong Foot

The biochemists said the native fruit

Weren’t poisonous, and they were healthy too

They tasted better than we’d ever had

We finished off the last of them before

Some aliens with woven baskets came

They looked upon denuded trees, then us

Juice quickly wiped from dripping chins and hands
The looks we got before they slipped away!

We headed for our ship; we saw black smoke

Ran then, and found our landing craft aflame

And nothing we could salvage from the fire

Before the mother ship could rescue us

A flight of spears flew from beneath the trees

Please tell my husband that I love--

070618c

Ceres station
steers ice to the fourth planet
Martians wake

060418b

only females
remain of the native stock
parthenogenetic