Our long hard trip has left us worn but wise
We learn that matters that look large close by
Can fade to naught when one sees from afar
From Earth, the dying sun filled half the sky
Fourteen light years away scarce does its shine
Stand out from that of any pallid star
*
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I had returned.
to find Viet Nam.
To find my past.
To find my lover.
To find my Linh.
I returned.
So in the crags deep and distant from Tu Le,
I searched.
I search for my youth,
I search for my answers,
I search for Linh.
I searched.
I found only a temple.
With scars of my past.
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[Illustration: “Dreamcatcher” © 2007 by D’Wayne Murphy.]
When Cassie sat on the rooftop of her house
Late one night and looked up
Into outer space,
She wanted nothing more
Than to see a shooting star
Just so she could make a wish.
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Illustration: “Genghis in Space” © 2007 by Romeo Esparrago
time dilation
we sail headlong
towards distant stars
blinking at us–
like sirens
their cosmic call
everywhere at once
apparently
but the light left
so long ago
we would be late
even if we could
eventually arrive there
in vestigial time
exhausted by the trip
& generations
later much too late
to explain to those
we met
how it is they
like us
must endure the ironies
of E=mc2
but the trick is
to trust the appearing
or the disappearing
or maybe just the slow dilation,
knowing better than to trust your eyes.
[Illustration: “Natsuko” © 2006 by Romeo Esparrago.]
Spatters of pure oxygen
Poisoning us, bubble-hard
Then comes the sweep cycle
–methane never smelled so good *
About the Author: Arun Ahuja is a science fiction writer with an MS in biomedical engineering. His piece “Pomposity Penalized” won Editor’s Pick in the University of New Mexico’s magazine.
Poem (c) 2006 Arun Ahuja helioray@netscape.net
About the Artist: Romeo Esparrago lives on a gas giant and is therefore super-cool.
Illustration (c) 2006 Romeo Esparrago
[Illustration: “Lava Raft” © 2006 by Romeo Esparrago.]
It’s two for a dollar
the Whirlie-Warp ride
just past the Fun House
through the white gate
climb the wood tower
slide into the tunnel
and disintegrate
to cosmic scintillas
a boreal glow in
Devonian skies
a sparklet of moonrise
in dinosaur eyes
a night planet’s wink
at the prayer of a Sikh
aswirl through the eons
till whipped to a peak
you’ll step out again, whole
and find it’s last week. *
About the Author: Michael Katz teaches anatomy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Story (c) 2006 Michael Jay Katz mjk8@case.edu
About the Artist: Romeo Esparrago lives in a Fun House of the mind.
Illustration (c) 2006 Romeo Esparrago
[Illustration: “Cycle Duels” © 2006 by Romeo Esparrago.]
A famous stunt man
tried to leap a lunar chasm
on an old-fashioned
dirt bike.
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Illustration: “Space Artsyfact” © 2005 by Romeo Esparrago
I clunked down steps in an eerie alien-twilight world.
Deadly mist licked tenuously at my suit,
Long fingers, searching fingers,
An old world beckons. I stepped down into its arms.
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Illustration: “The Meeting” © 2005 by Romeo Esparrago
The accursed time traveler,
Swept up and set down in a vortex,
Finds himself in the future where
Men look like women
And women look like men,
Or perhaps they look
Like neither.
Seeing they have no eyes to see
And no mouth with which to speak,
He panics at the sight of their
Featureless faces and the strange
Fire burning beneath their
Gauzy skin.
Like Cain he seizes a rock
And strikes one while the other
Hides among synthetic trees.
Out of the shattered skull
A chrome globe rolls forth,
Gleaming and cold,
Totally bloodless.
The traveler picks up the sphere
And sees his own reflection
Distorted in a miniature
Horizon of glimmering steel. *
About the Author: Ray Sikes teaches English at Delaware Technical & Community College. His stories, essays, and poems have been published in various print and web publications, and he is the author of “Blues for a Dime Store Guitar”, a novel.
(c) 2005 Ray Sikes rsikes@dtcc.edu
About the Artist: Romeo Esparrago is able to keep up with the normal flow of time by jogging in place.
(c) 2005 Romeo Esparrago http://www.romedome.com
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Illustration: “Huh” © 2005 by Romeo Esparrago.
Professor Anderson relentlessly scanned the skies
Searching tirelessly for that elusive prize
Of a signal with subtle hints of intelligence
Plucked from the universe’s chaotic cadence
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