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Today I walk stalk. Pick up a rose petal,
pocket crumple its fuchsia. All of the jasmine is mine.
Wilting. The neighbors are stupid. They shaved off
the blooms of their sunrise lantana so all of the monarchs
got bored then left. I stalk walk and hunger curdles
like a middle finger on the ramp, merging into traffic.
I miss it. The throaty curses, the smog curled into a tongue-like cup.
I used to eat it like a fist. On the news, they said pregnant people
have to give birth alone. These lone portals of agony and affirmation.
I walk stalk the hospital right off the freeway. The sign painted neon
underneath my eyes. My tongue, folded neatly inside my mask.
None of the birthers knew all those times my winged shadow
pressed against their windows. The nurses, these pinsan of mine,
they knew. The names they called me (you know them): baby thief. Murderess.
I’m not here for that. Not today, at least. I’ve tunneled my hunger
down deep. Here to slow dance with you. Here to prop your wings
up. Here to whistle a melody against the percussion
of intermittent fetal monitoring. Here to hear
you crack spring open, then tumble all of the seasons. I’m here.



Rachelle Cruz is the author of God’s Will for Monsters, which won an American Book Award and the Hillary Gravendyk Poetry Prize. She currently teaches Genre Fiction in the MFA program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University.
Current Issue
16 Jun 2025

When I met the young Mr Turing, I had not yet ascended as Autumn’s King. Nowadays it has become fashionable for the sons and daughters of the lesser fey gentry to improve their position in the shifting hierarchy of the Courts by virtue of intrigue, scandal, and the naked blade; but in those times, it was the custom to advance one’s position through the collection of human bagatelles.
When women cross the border, / coyotes get rooms at motels.
With their noses shaped like rockets and ancient vacuum cleaners
By: Ariel Marken Jack
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Ariel Marken Jack's 'Sister, Silkie, Siren, Shark' read by Emmie Christie. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠
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