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I stay home and watch fireworks on the Fourth of July

my son thinks they're shooting stars

they race over our deck celebrating the accuracy of our drones

they celebrate the red glare of rockets landing in puddles of

families huddled around their breakfast tea and zaatared bread

starbursting rockets explode simple dreams of music and dance

pieces of flesh and hair and secret imaginings of romance and jasmine in the garden

all fly together into interstellar air

the fireworks’ ashes rain down into our sweet, iced tea

we consume the bitter dream particles and digest them into a lesser form



Layla Azmi Goushey is an English professor in St. Louis, Missouri. Her poetry, prose, and non- fiction have been published in several literary journals and anthologies such as the St. Louis Anthology and Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative Nonfiction.
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19 May 2025

I could live or survive off of bunny breath alone, eating little clouds of fog.
Exceptional measures are required.
By: Elle Engel
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Elle Engel's Half Sick of Shadows read by Emmie Christie Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠
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