Size / / /

   for Alli Sheldon

I build you out of argument.

Dissension makes you live

the undead life between my pages

rather than the worlds you wrote.

I do not want what Mary Shelley made:

hard bone, electric light, the shock of pubic hair.

Just talk to me.

I'd eat your inconsistencies

and read the songs of my entrails.

Your genius frisson goads me.

What will I find in your dead book

to criticize my size and shape

as I reanminate what history

has trunked instead of gloried?


Mary Alexandra Agner is the author of The Doors of the Body (Mayapple Press). Her poems are forthcoming in Goblin Fruit, Naugatuck River Review, and Science Editor. All her life she's observed the universe and written about it. She can be found online at http://www.pantoum.org/. More of her work can be found in our archives.



Mary Alexandra Agner writes of dead women, telescopes, and secrets. Her poetry, stories, and nonfiction have appeared in The Cascadia Subduction ZoneShenandoah, and Sky & Telescope, respectively. She can be found online at http://www.pantoum.org.
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25 Sep 2023

People who live in glass houses are surrounded by dirt birds
After a century, the first colony / of bluebirds flew out of my mouth.
Over and over the virulent water / beat my flame down to ash
In this episode of  Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan talk to critic and poet Catherine Rockwood about how reviewing and criticism feed into creative practice. Also, pirates.
Writing authentic stories may require you to make the same sacrifice. This is not a question of whether or not you are ready to write indigenous literature, but whether you are willing to do so. Whatever your decision, continue to be kind to indigenous writers. Do not ask us why we are not famous or complain about why we are not getting support for our work. There can only be one answer to that: people are too busy to care. At least you care, and that should be enough to keep my culture alive.
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