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with you, guided by quantum pilotage,
holding hands, hearts pounding.

Long we’ve been gone,
but we're nowhere
near done.

In Amherst,
we heard Her
say something like:

wild
flights,
wild nights,

close calls when
I’m with Thee
dressed to the nines,

at the parade
until the Archduke
is shot and then

speeding away
before it all
goes up in flames.

After a nap, we
wake to fire and
drunkenness

after making love after
making war:
Persepolis burning

snap-decision of our leader,
wasted, like us, and looking
to impress Hephaestion.

One last stop today
homeward bound,
in space and time. We land

after nightfall, tip-toeing,
down Ford’s corridors,
guns drawn, silencers on,

padding, oh so softly, toward
the greenroom of
John Wilkes Booth.

In Amherst, She
postulated that,
perhaps, just

once, we can
defy our Holy
Guide’s One

and Golden Rule:
you can see anything,
but on the condition

that you never
attempt
revisions.



Paul is a historian of global environmental change and the American Empire. He also writes fiction and poetry with climate justice and history themes. When he’s not in the archive or the classroom, he’s jogging, cooking, gardening, hiking, or hanging out with his husband and their dogs. You can check out more of his work at www.paulnauert.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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