Size / / /

Entering the computer

through the keyboard,

we experience the ultimate

in zero gravity.

We could freefall forever,

smokers drifting down

through the dissolving parachutes

of their own smokerings,

burning up the keyboard

with our fingers.

Those bottomless zeros

are calling us,

drawing us toward the

one great One.

Or think of adventurers

chasing nothing,

ripples of zero

that, Lorelei-like,

lure them deeper and deeper

into a quest for Nirvana.

Outside the window,

the heavy moist snow nests on

the branches of the junipers,

bending them to point closer

to the earth,

and the songs of birds

try to outbid

the rustling of the hard drive.

This really isn't about you.

It's about me

and I have to go now.




Duane Ackerson's poetry has appeared in Rolling Stone, Yankee, Prairie Schooner, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Cloudbank, alba, Starline, Dreams & Nightmares, and several hundred other places. He has won two Rhysling awards and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Salem, Oregon. You can find more of his work in our archives.
Current Issue
11 Nov 2024

Their hair permed, nails scarlet, knees slim, lashes darkly tinted.
green spores carried on green light, sleeping gentle over steel bones
The rest of the issue is on its way. We think.
In the 4th episode of SH@25, Editor Kat Kourbeti sits down with tabletop game designer and SFF critic Kyle Tam, whose young career has taken off in the last few years. Read on for an insightful interview about narrative storytelling from non-Western perspectives, the importance of schlock and trash in the development of taste, and the windows into creativity we find in moments of hardship.
After the disaster—after the litigation, the endless testimony, the needling comments of the defendant’s counsel—there is at last a settlement, with no party admitting error, and the state recognizing no victim, least of all yourself. Although the money cannot mend any of the overturned things left behind, it can pay for college, so that’s where you go next.
Issue 4 Nov 2024
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By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
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By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
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By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
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