Embedded Files
"Cedar Creek Bridge" by Rita Oakes
This photo was taken during a walk in Double Trouble State Park in Bayville, New Jersey. I was showing off the unique ecosystem of pine barrens and former cranberry bog to an out of state friend of mine and we paused a moment to lean over the bridge and gaze at the creek. The water there is tea-colored, due to the tannic acid from the cedar roots. The lighting was just right and I decided to capture our reflection in a photo to memorialize our day.
More photos can be seen on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/rita.oakes
or my website: http://www.ritaoakes.com/photos.html
or my sadly unupdated FlickR account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9916517@N07/
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays!
Happy Reading Days!
Happy Reading Days!
First, though, we have some sad news. We just heard that one of our favorite poets has passed away. Bruce Boston, the recipient of the first Grand Master award presented by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) in 1999, has honored us by debuting many of his poems in our issues for almost the last twenty years. The most recent was in our fall issue, “Dark Exits,” which prompted editor Candyce Byrne to say when she first read it, “Yes, yes, yes. So many of our fairy stories begin just like this.” Another of our favorite poems, “Pan’s Descent,” will appear in our upcoming anthology “The Growers.” And in this present issue, we have the last new poem Bruce sent us, “Seeing the World.” Bruce’s insight into how video games can help us escape from the horrors of modern life now takes on a sadder undertone for me. We will miss your poetry, Bruce. And our condolences to your wife, Marge Simon, another of our grand masters of poetry.
In this issue, we have something in it, I hope, for everyone. From first encounters with aliens who discover how to communicate with us using a device common in our households and workplaces today--both using the same unexpected device in two separate stories! (See if you can guess which one.) To the birth of a lady Godzilla. To the killing of an ancient dragon charged to save our world from destruction. On to the undying bond of soldiers and old friends, to the heartbreaking promise of a husband to love forever, and to a mother searching for her daughter in the far beyond. Then to top it all off, a selection of thought-filled poetry, some ironic, some surreal, all beautiful, for us to ponder throughout the new year. We hope you enjoy the issue!
~Susan Shell Winston, editor
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
FICTION
FICTION
I can still see traces, fragments drifting, stuttering, welling up inside of me as if they were once an essential part, though they never were. They belonged to you. I might have pretended they were of me, for me, because of me, once upon a time. Those days are past, as am I, I think.
I was stunned. Here we'd thought intelligent life had disappeared from Yeg millennia ago, yet a new species was emerging. Just wait till I told Dr. Torma.
I wrote, "How did you learn to write my words?"
He answered, "YOUR WORDS ALL OVER EVERYTHING LEARN SO EASY"
I blushed. My progress on compiling a corpus of the Archaio-Yegian language was taking months, and this lepid was having a conversation with me in English in less than a day.
The interesting thing about sea glass was it had always been something else before. Broken, tossed about, polished, fashioned by the sea into something different. She curved her fingers around it. I’d like to be fashioned into something different. Something impossible to ignore or disrespect.
This interstellar visitor was going to impact the Earth. It was time to contact the Space Force.
“Did anyone see what hit us?” Shorty asked.
“Looked like some kind of fire breathing dragon,” Zuber said.
“Say what?” both JJ and Shorty said at the same time.
“Yeah,” Flanna confirmed. “For once I agree with Lars. What I saw looked long and skinny for its size and it had big flapping wings. Baser says it’s something called a Humbaba.”
At the sound of the name, Baser seemed to wake up.
“Yes, Sergeant Shorty. It was Humbaba and we must turn back or we will all die!”
FLASH FICTION
FLASH FICTION
POETRY
NONFICTION
Strabo wrote of the age-old practice of people putting a fleece into the rivers in ancient Colchis (today part of Mingrelia in Georgia) to catch the gold which was washed down from the higher levels in the mountains. He thought that this had given rise to the legend of the Golden Fleece.
Never in the history of astronomy was there more mainstream controversy than when Pluto was demoted by the International Astronomical Union from a planet to a dwarf planet.
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