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After The Last Man on the Moon by Alan Bean

Landing feels like getting off a trampoline,
The weightlessness fading to muscle memory
Choking in the sweet rush of ocean air

The first ones who came back, they put in quarantine
Trying to know if they were the same men who left
Or if they were branded by the moment they were elsewhere

They’re braver now, and as the microphones peel memories
Layer by layer, the moment fades, becomes a story
You tell others so they feel like they understand

The trouble is, this isn’t the world you left:
It sprawls overwhelmingly, missing the friction
between action and reaction, impact and sound

So maybe the moment didn’t disappear
Maybe you exhaled it on that first winter day
And it hung in the air and settled everywhere

Left a thin film between you and the world
Wedging itself in the nooks and crannies of the rest
of your life: like beach sand, or moondust.



Thomas White studies aerospace engineering and creative writing at Stanford University. In his spare time, he fences, reads while walking, and plays in an amateur space-themed cover band.
Current Issue
18 Mar 2024

Welcome New Fiction Editor! 
Strange Horizons
We are very happy to welcome Dante Luiz as a new fiction editor on the team! Dante is a Ignyte Award winning author, and has been with Strange Horizons working as an Art Director for the past several years. We’re stoked to bring him on to the fiction side and have him bring his wonderful insight and skill to the fiction team.
The Cyborg’s Side of the Story 
in my defence, juggling biological and artificial, i tripped over my shoelace, and spilled my lungs empty of the innocence that was, before guilt.
Aviary 
the birds, / who carry with them / the many names of the dead
Feeder Fish 
Day in and day out, the rough waters of the Pacific slam themselves against the protrusion of sandstone the locals refer to as Morro Rock. White streaks of bird shit bleed down the rock, a testament to the rare birds of prey that nest in its pocked face overlooking the bay.
Monday: Twice Lived by Joma West 
Wednesday: Overlap: The Lives of a Former Time Jumper by N. Joseph Glass 
Issue 11 Mar 2024
Issue 4 Mar 2024
Issue 26 Feb 2024
Issue 19 Feb 2024
Issue 12 Feb 2024
Issue 5 Feb 2024
Issue 29 Jan 2024
Issue 15 Jan 2024
Issue 8 Jan 2024
Issue 1 Jan 2024
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