Time for some scifaiku and tanka now from Francis W. Alexander, Robert Shmigelsky, Brittany Hause, Herb Kauderer, and Denny E. Marshall. Their bios appear as closing credits.


time-lapse photography             
the bat’s graceful shapeshift                             
to a vampire                              

...Francis W. Alexander


space-time eddy
wormhole TV in the hands of
a channel clicker
 
...Robert Shmigelsky


field trip        

smoking phoenix nest
as we crowd around
my classmate picks his nose

...Brittany Hause


detour
 
Lunar cab driver
unintentionally hits
escape velocity
takes long route around L5
with his meter still running


Lost in Translation
 
Martian restaurants
named from Terran atlases
conjure atmosphere
but add no flavor to meals
of replicated proteins.

...Herb Kauderer


aliens approach
three body parts join and say
“we come in pieces”

time machine magazine
negative two day
response time

...Denny E. Marshall


The bios...

* Francis Wesley Alexander has had stories and poems published in Grievous Angel, The Martian Wave, Night to Dawn, Scifiakuest, Space and Time, The Drabbler Anthologies, and numerous other publications. 

* Robert Shmigelsky runs over all things in his mind. Some of it squeaks out as short poetry. And onto his Facebook account.

* Brittany Hause is a linguist with a love of science fiction and fantasy. When not wrapped up in research, they can usually be found reading and writing SFF poems and stories. Their speculative poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Star*Line, Abyss & Apex, and elsewhere.

* Herb Kauderer is an associate professor at Hilbert College. He won the 2017 Asimov's Readers' Award for Best Poem, and has had 15 books and chapbooks published. More can be found at http://HerbKauderer.com

* Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published. One recent credit is poetry in Weirdbook #37 Sept. 2017. See more at http://www.dennymarshall.com

We've an interesting mix of short poetry for you now, including a couple of tanka and a limerick, from Grievous Angel regulars Christina Sng, Herb Kauderer, Andy Brown, and Gabriel Smithwilson... 


Untitled Tanka
by Christina Sng

Mars beckons
in the near distance
as we leave Earth behind
biting into a blueberry
I water the tomatoes


Untitled Tanka
by Herb Kauderer
 
Buck Rogers buildings
recall long ago futures
turning ghosts of dreams
into fashions drunk on fumes
of old rockets and jetpacks


Fantasy Limerick
by Andy Brown

Young Jenny had upset a witch
By calling the woman a bitch
The hag cast a spell
Which made the girl smell
And gave her an intimate itch


Summer Project
by Gabriel Smithwilson           

In still-warm midnight hour
Pink Floyd instrumental
Snaking deftly through static
On the garage radio
One last strange piece
Is put into place
And like a solar flare
In neon shades
The homemade flying saucer
Has come to life

We've new short-form poetry and tanka for you now, proving that less is more, from four writers: Soren James (UK), Lisa Timpf (Canada), Bruce Boston (USA), and DJ Tyrer (UK).


Time Travel No 7
by Soren James

Of the eighteen techniques of time-travel, 
seven's the fastest: constricting
space, time, and potential (to lower 
awareness of life's passing), 
and shuffle you swiftly to death – 
without dent 
or incident.

It's the passage of choice in lush,
over-stimulating environments.

​
* Soren James is a writer and visual artist who has been previously published in Grievous Angel, Cafe Irreal, Freeze Frame Fiction, and Nanoism. https://sorenjames.wordpress.com


Nuclear Winter
by Lisa Timpf

scarcity triggers
a nuclear winter –
"Ha!" the skeptics sneer
"I told you global warming
was a myth."


* Ontario-based Lisa Timpf is a retired HR and communications professional whose writing has appeared in New Myths, Third Flatiron, The Martian Wave, and Scifaikuest.


Vampire Fortuneteller
by Bruce Boston
 
She reads the veins
in your throat
and only charges
a few drops.


* Bruce Boston's most recent collections, Sacrificial Nights, Visions of the Mutant Rain Forest, and Brief Encounters with My Third Eye, are available at Amazon.


Killing Grandpa
by DJ Tyrer

Pile of blunted razorblades
Broken knives, jammed guns
Provide mute testimony
As Grandpa swings back and forth
Growing annoyed to be kept hanging
No neck snap, poison ineffective
As the Grandfather Paradox
Proves a fleeting mirage


The Neptune Adventure
by DJ Tyrer

Spaceship in Neptunian orbit
Capsized by solar storm
Flipped upside down
Thanks to artificial gravity
Nobody notices nor cares


* DJ Tyrer runs Atlantean Publishing, placed second in the 2015 Data Dump Award for Genre Poetry and had a poem in The Rhysling Anthology 2016. His website is at http://djtyrer.blogspot.co.uk/ and Atlantean at http://atlanteanpublishing.blogspot.co.uk

A selection of short poems, tanka, and even a scifi limerick for you now from a mixture of new and regular Angel contributors: Gabriel Smithwilson, Christina Sng, Irving, Jessica Jo Horowitz, and John Reinhart.


The Open Door

Much to the surprise
Of those maybe
Passing through
All that lays beyond
Is the universe unchained
And pigeons
Wanting bread

by Gabriel Smithwilson – Gabriel says "I live in one of those cities that's close to being the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a lot of somewhere. I am an aspiring poet, player of various musical instruments, and big fan of Ray Bradbury, Marc Bolan, Gene Wilder and other random artistic geniuses."


# # # # #


seconds before
the asteroid hits
he finally tells me
he loves me
eye roll


yellow bricks
on this road
she takes
the ruby express
instead

by Christina Sng – Christina is a poet, writer, and artist. She is the author of several collections, including A Constellation of Songs (Origami Poems Project, Allegra Press), Catku (Allegra Press), Astropoetry (Alban Lake Publishing), and A Collection of Nightmares (Raw Dog Screaming Press).


# # # # #


Morning

Cold breakfast. 
Nearly silent hiss of air 
across immaculate filters. 
In the airlock, 
nothing.

by irving – irv is a web developer who writes in the spare time brought about from living in the tundra near Lake Ontario. His poetry has previously appeared in Dreams & Nightmares, From the Asylum, Niteblade, Paper Crow, Star*Line and other fine publications.


# # # # #


Lullaby

in the darkness of the bridge
the computer sings in analog
and I tell it stories
to soothe us both to sleep

by Jessica Jo Horowitz – Jessica Jo is Korean born, living in New England and is probably cold right now. Previous publications include ChiZine, Star*Line and Eye to the Telescope. 


# # # # #


engraved on the seats of the shuttle
when it was finally removed from the rubble
were rude cartoons
from far distant moons
of zero-g sex & its trouble

by John Reinhart – John is frequent contributor at the Songs of Eretz, Poetry Nook editor, and recipient of the 2016 Horror Writers Association Dark Poetry Scholarship.

We've a bumper-bundle (a reference only people who listened to Two-Way Family Favourites ​on BBC Radio in the UK in the 1950s will get) of scifaiku for you now. Nothing but haiku, except for the tanka that is. All poet bios appear at the end. And, again for non-denizens of the UK, there is a double pun in Susan Burch's "vending machine" poem as a Galaxy is also a brand of chocolate in the UK. Enjoy!


Metal Astronomer

Orion rising
robot's lens
pressed to the eye of a telescope    

by Kendall Evans    


snickers bar –
in the vending machine
that's out of order...
a galaxy
far far away
 
why won’t she
text me back?
the temperature
on Mars
drops again
 
alien proof –
I wake up with crop circles
on my va-jay-jay

by Susan Burch


Blissful silence –
her yipping terrier
out the airlock.
 
Left behind,
the last ship
leaving the horizon.

First breath of winter,
my bed becomes a portal,
out of the ice world.

by Samantha Renda 


The Ingenious Engine Stops
 
A poem is a small (or large) machine made of words. ...William Carlos Williams
 
sophisticated technology
relying on short-lived batteries:
our brief span – eternal irony
 
De-Scribe
 
pencil and paper
artifacts of an early
digital age

by Pat Tompkins


alien flyby
wondering why
the fourth planet
is no longer blue
but rust-red

root cellar
the bodies age
nicely

sheets flapping
my childhood fear
of ghosts reignites

by Christina Sng


the music 
of a stellar nursery – 
radio emissions 

plopping through 
the planet's sandy rings – 
so many fractals 
     
by Francis W. Alexander

 
Our Haikuists:

Kendall Evans' poems have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov's SF, Mythic Delirium, Dreams & Nightmares, Weird Tales, and numerous other science fiction and fantasy publications. 

Susan Burch says she likes to write haiku, senryu, tanka, and sedoka. She has been published in magazines such as Ribbons, Frogpond, Moongarlic, and Bones and enjoys drinking Coca-Cola Slurpees.

Samantha Renda divides her time between writing poetry and researching towards her Masters degree in Zoology in the Kalahari. Much like her academic writing, she feels that most of the poetry she pens wants burning. Sometimes a good one slips through. 

Pat Tompkins is an editor in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her short sci-fi poems have appeared in several issues of Dwarf Stars. She adds "I'm not quite a Luddite, but I don't do social media or have a blog or website."

Christina Sng is a Rhysling-nominated poet and writer. Her work has received Honourable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She is the author of several haiku chapbooks, including Catku (Allegra Press, 2016) and A Constellation of Songs (Allegra Press, 2016). Her first full-length collection, Astropoetry from Alban Lake Publishing is out New Year’s Day 2017. 

​Francis Wesley Alexander was born and lives in Sandusky, Ohio. He has had stories and poems published in The Martian Wave, Night to Dawn, Scifiakuest, Space and Time, The Drabbler Anthologies; A Robot, A Cyborg, & A Martian Walk Into A Space Bar, the Zombified II Anthology, and numerous other publications.