Deborah P Kolodji
insomnia
those fierce Martian
winds
planted trees
in the surface dome
forest bathing
unbridled drones
the year of the horse
nebula
DEBORAH P KOLODJI moderates the Southern California Haiku Study Group and is the former president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. She has published 4 chapbooks of poetry, over 1000 poems, and has appeared in several anthologies, including “Aftershocks: Poetry of Recovery,” The Red Moon Anthology, the Rhysling Anthology, Dwarf Stars, and A New Resonance 4. She has published several short stories and a memoir appears in Chicken Soup for the Dieter’s Soul. Her first full-length book of haiku and senryu, “Highway of Sleeping Towns,” from Shabda Press won a distinguished book award from The Haiku Foundation.
Welp, when lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, we weren’t trying to smell them through DIY-bandana face masks while maintaining twelve-foot-diameter personal space bubbles. This shit got hella real and then proceeded to fling itself into our collective fan.
The poems and stories here in our one-hundred-and-eighth issue brought some sparkle to our gloomy days, and we hope they’ll do the same for you. Take a leap with Sarah Sexton’s statuesque protagonist and sing the sheep electric with AR Dugan’s replicant. Ride a Sisyphean ouroboros with P.K. Read, look down on Leatherface with Anne Gresham, and explore the final frontier with Deborah P Kolodji before trying on a new (out)look with Chris Stanton. Don’t leave without admiring the organic fusion cover art of Ajay Kumar (Jordan) Singh.
Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Send us some of your words. We’ll be back with another issue in July, because the more things change, the more we stay the weird.
five scifaiku
the moon’s peak–
spring’s shrill rut
a braying mist worm
scorching solar winds all surface mining stopped
clone-soldiers
stand in straight ranks
in boring rain
oh, this replacement brain still empty inside
leftover pin fruit–
high in the dar-dar tree
gathering star-wings
ED HIGGINS‘s poems and short fiction have appeared in various print and online journals, including Scifaikuest and multiple other haiku/short-form journals. He and his wife live on a small farm South of Portland, OR. He teaches writing and literature at George Fox University.
