032421b

Something native
Had infiltrated crop genomes
When spines and tentacles grew from our skin
It was too late
To go back to ship rations

021721

 

The last contributor copies  of Dreams and Nightmares 117 were mailed today. A few of them went overseas, but all domestic contributors should have their copies in less than a week. Even though Biden hasn't had time to fix the post office. There is a lot of great stuff in this issue, including some poems that I think will be nominated for the Rhysling award next year. If you want to subscriber, you can get a print copy for five dollars or a PDF copy for one. Just PayPal me at jopnquog@gmail.com

010821d

 

SFPA Members: I have a file consisting of a modest number of poems by me that were published in 2020 and are eligible for the Rhysling award. Let me know if you want to see them.

122420d

 

And In the Post-Human World
 

Somebody cried out

deep in the word

and fell silent

the forest was on the move

the sun rose

on a savanna

large animals browsed

others grazed

there were no dwellings

only the termite mounds

organic towers

and burrow systems

dug by sloths, beavers

small rodents

and innumerable invertebrates

122420

 

My office is also our library, which makes it feel very welcoming. It is also one of the smallest rooms in the house, which keeps it warmer in the winter than any of the others. It has a relatively large south-facing window — the icing on the cake. I didn't appreciate how wonderful this room is before my spinal-cord injury. Yet another benefit of the injury. Today I plan to do some geology work, and then get back to laying out Dreams and Nightmares 117.  Then get back to reading Boroson's "The Girl with No Face."

122320d

 
The Seals eventually did kill Godzilla (just how is top secret in case they have to do it again) but when he came back, it was another matter. He was a ghost, you know. Bullets wouldn't stop him.

122120c

 
Native life
emerges between solar flares
frenetic and frantic to procreate
hungry like you wouldn't believe

111220b

 
Emerging a bit too close
to the hole that is eating the galaxy
just time to regret
skipping lunch

111020d

 
Each nut had another nut inside it, bigger than the last. Eventually, we found one big enough to live in, cut a door in the side, and moved in. Same way you got stuck here, I suppose.

110820c

 

thawing

a martian lake

I look for life

110620c

 

 

 Cretaceous estates isn't a bad place to live, if you don't mind the 40-foot-long scimitar toothed predators and hundred-foot veggie lovers, which make having a garden completely impossible.

110320d

 
Just One Vote

If I hadn't gotten lost
if I hadn't left late
if I hadn't forgotten what day it was
if I hadn't been this close to the end of the movie
if I hadn't been all tied up — to my bed
well, then the Venusians would've won the election
the Martian party would've been out on its aural membranes
and the forced marches
culling of the strongest, when the food transports.docked
and the ocean removal
probably would have stopped

110120c

 

I blame pesticides in the groundwater. My neighbor's two pit bulls were no match for the 10-foot mutant shrews. We were saved in the nick by the mantis. But after what happened to Charlie, we dare not go outside. the food is running low. Jane wants to make a dash for the SUV. We can't wait for cold weather, she says. She didn't see how fast it moved when the Wilsons tried the same trick.
 

103020c

 

Adhering to a chunk of rock
the ship hurtled toward the primary
looking like nothing but a boulder
of extraordinarily typical hue and surface texture
but within, Samm 57, webbed amid the controls
monitored everything
it set course for planet three
and fired hot jets
welcome was not anticipated
yet Samm would kiss everything
briefly

103020b

 

Clouds of Wine

the chain of memory pearls
slowly dissolves in her glass
she looks around at the world
with fresh eyes

102820c

 

observation deck
a nebula has bloomed
since last I woke

102720c

 

all our ancestors
stored in this supercooled drive
you never visit
 

102420b

 

We see the same ghouls and witches
Trick-or-treating under orange moons
Never imagined a broomstick
Would take you this far
And all the air you needed for the trip
How did the zombies do it?
Or the mummies?

Traditions die hard —
At least the ghosts are real

102320c

 

Some tourist spoil the whole thing by attaching the interface, getting sucked into the hive mind, leaving a pile of clothes, dentures, and a titanium rod in an untidy pile on the far side of the do not cross line. So now humans aren't allowed in, can't pose the questions that life throws at them, have to do their own thinking, and we can trust our politicians anymore. It's like the old days, before the Visitors took over.

102320b

 

Under the mask
the lizard face
the lizard mask
conceals the microcephalic
rulers of earth