Revisiting a Rhysling Award Winner

Read Joe Haldeman's "Eighteen Years Old, October Eleventh"

It's gorgeous. Here are the opening lines:

Drunk for the first time in her life,
she tossed her head in a horsey laugh
and that new opal gift sailed off her sore earlobe,
in a graceful parabola,
pinged twice on the stone porch floor,
and rolled off to hide behind the rose bushes.

It gathered dust and silt for two centuries.
The mansion came down in a war.

"The Ransom of Planet X"

Karen Romanko's "The Ransom of Planet X" is up at Dragons, Knights & Angels.

A taste:

We were out Sol's way,
angling for goodies,
but Sunny's a miser,
and won't tend to share