Size / / /

White irises float on the darkening air
like ghosts of sturdier flowers,

far less substantial than the child
I almost saw through doors

and windows of the old house,
disappearing out of sight too fast

for me to grab more than a glimpse
of legs and curly hair. The ghost boy

at 3am can't have been real, running
through a daylit house I lived in years ago

but far too much like truth
revealed in a mystery.

I'm scared to sleep tonight.
What if he finds me here?




Jenny’s poems and stories have appeared in august Australian and international literary journals and anthologies, as well as Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Cosmos magazine, and multiple Rhysling anthologies. Her latest collection from Pitt Street Poetry is The Alpaca CantosEagle Books published her ghostly middle-grade adventure The Girl in the Mirror in October 2019. She is jennyblackford on Facebook and @dutiesofacat on Twitter. www.jennyblackford.com
Current Issue
18 Nov 2024

Your distress signals are understood
Somehow we’re now Harold Lloyd/Jackie Chan, letting go of the minute hand
It was always a beautiful day on April 22, 1952.
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Little Lila by Susannah Rand, read by Claire McNerney. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
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