Whether or not I believe in magic is surely beside the point
When I look down and find a quarter
Lying in the middle of the sidewalk
Just when I need to phone you.

It makes no difference, you see, and I refuse to be suckered in
To making up beliefs that explain that when I am thinking of you
There you come walking around the corner and humming
That same damn song I am thinking of right now.

I won't drum, nor will I light candles.
I am part of no coven. I have never been inside
A fortuneteller's tent.

I have never even seen
the inside
of a magician's hat.

John Teehan lives and writes in Providence, Rhode Island. He has recently sold stories which will appear in Men Writing SF as Women (Daw, 2003) and Low Port (Meisha Merlin, 2003). "The Literary Roots of Fantasy" appears in The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy (Twilight Times, 2002) and he has sold poetry to the SFPA publication Star*Line. John publishes the fanzine Sleight of Hand and is the current Art Director/Production Manager for the SFWA Bulletin. For more about him, visit his website. John's previous publications in Strange Horizons can be found in our Archive.