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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
30 Sep 2024

I did not hear the sky crack open
And she shows me her claws.
In colonial south India and in other parts of South Asia, then, there existed established theories of imagination and the mind as well as established literary traditions of fantasy that make the question of the known and unknown, the real and unreal, an impossible one.
This episode was frustrating and hilarious, just like so many things in life. What do the last two episodes have in store for us? Maybe something coherent happens in the story? Maybe an appearance by verbally abusive rocks? Plants that extensively quote things with no reliable source?
SH@25 is a new, year-long interview and feature series that will delve into the archives, celebrate the work of past contributors and staff, and highlight the contributions of Strange Horizons to SFF publishing and the wider community.
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