Size / / /

Somehow, she always knew that the unicorn

was what she'd been waiting for. Why have a man

when you could have the shimmering horn,

the cloud-white mane, the eyes that shone like

polished stones? She sat in the dry leaves,

a maiden in a pleasaunce, its head on her knees.

It slept while she dreamed of a millefleur forest

and the end of the story by a pomegranate tree.

There was a long afterward. When they emerged

from a tangle of boughs, it all seemed different,

like looking through the other side of a mirror.

She stroked the unicorn's shivering flank,

remembering the crimson warmth of the tapestry.




Rebekah Curry is currently a student majoring in Classics. Her work has previously appeared in inkscrawl and Antiphon, and in the anthology Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems (Woodley Press, 2011).
Current Issue
20 Jan 2025

Strange Horizons
Surveillance technology looms large in our lives, sold to us as tools for safety, justice, and convenience. Yet the reality is far more sinister.
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“Don’t ask me how, but I found out this big account on queer Threads is some kind of super Watcher.” Charlii spins her laptop around so the others can see. “They call them Keepers, and they watch the people that the state’s apparatus has tagged as terrorists. Not just the ones the FBI created. The big fish. And people like us, I guess.”
It's 9 a.m., she still hasn't eaten her portion of tofu eggs with seaweed, and Amaia wants the day to be over.
Nadjea always knew her last night in the Clave would get wild: they’re the only sector of the city where drink and drug and dance are unrestricted, and since one of the main Clavist tenets is the pursuit of corporeal joy in all its forms, they’ve more or less refined partying to an art.
surviving / while black / is our superpower / we lift broken down / cars / over our heads / and that’s just a tuesday
After a few deft movements, she tossed the cube back to James, perfectly solved. “We’re going to break into the Seattle Police Department’s database. And you’re going to help me do it.”
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By: Michelle Kulwicki
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Michelle Kulwicki's 'Bee Season' read by Emmie Christie.
Issue 13 Jan 2025
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Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
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Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
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