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If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?

—Kendrick Lamar

Don't ask me why, [. . .] ask me how!

—Tupac Shakur

 

Steel world, white fire, neon gaze and acid
falls—a land of cement and granite—that hide the
vision of stars with twisted clouds,

base of the cauldron, nailed to the floor: a black flower.

Ground of blood and mother’s wails, the rush
of suited skeletons, lining to their next daily death,
the life-red, red-life always ignored,

the black flower.

Black rose, born of the concrete,
born from stacked despairing generations,
packed in the stench of unending currency,

in this dark cocoon, you still bloom.

Black light, from the manufactured desert, slipping
through alleys into living rooms, pulsing
in sound-waves on a summer afternoon, through
bodies of boys for whom death creeps too soon,

can I trust you?          Unholy miracle of a gift,

can I—



Gabriel Noel is in his final year at Boston University.  In addition to scribbling in dollar notebooks, he has a deep interest in understanding the nature of perspective during the slim time he’s been allotted here.  He is also a soccer aesthete.
Current Issue
18 Mar 2024

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.
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.
in my defence, juggling biological and artificial, i tripped over my shoelace, and spilled my lungs empty of the innocence that was, before guilt.
the birds, / who carry with them / the many names of the dead
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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