Size / / /

Germination

Grey

hands

growing

from parched soil

fingertips near the

porch grasping hands and wrists around

the mailbox post where cacti withered and blew away

they bend in wind I cannot feel

large small every shape

why human

hands why

here

now

Dissolution

So

these

mono

chrome mani

dissolve in the first

gully-washer leaving oil slicks

swirling with faces I don't know they mouth words contort

as puddles dry but I don't read

lips or play charades

or look down

until

it's

dry

Transplantation

I

dig

up the

hands but they

don't have roots bases

are frilly fractal mats I could

root one in a pot not water it three times a week

transplant the arm and then if I

put it in the bath-

tub what would

rise up

from

it?

Cultivation

My

home

thirty

years the last

four of them alone

I think I saw my father's face

after the last rain I staked the puddle where it dried

five hands grew they're in the window

when I know which is

his it goes

in a

big

pot




David C. Kopaska-Merkel won the 2006 Rhysling Award for a collaboration with Kendall Evans, edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine, and has edited Star*Line and several Rhysling anthologies. His poems have appeared in Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. A collection, Some Disassembly Required, winner of the 2023 Elgin Award, is available from him at jopnquog@gmail.com.
Current Issue
14 Apr 2025

back-legg-ed, puppy shaped and squirmy
the pastor is a woman / with small birds living in the hollows of her eyes.
Strange Horizons
On June 4th, we will be opening for speculative fiction novelette submissions between the word count of 10,000 and 18,000 words. We will cap submissions at 300.
Strange Horizons
On November 3rd, we will be opening for speculative fiction stories written by Indigenous authors. We will be capping submissions at 500.
The formula for how to end the world got published the same day I married the girl who used to bully me in middle school. We found out about it the morning after, on the first day of our honeymoon in Cozumel. I got out of the shower in our small bungalow and Minju was sitting in bed, staring at her laptop.
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti talks to Charlie Jane Anders about her Strange Horizons publications dating all the way back to 2002, charting her journey as a writer and her experience with the magazine over 20 years, as well as her love for community events and bringing people together.
Issue 7 Apr 2025
By: Lowry Poletti
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
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Issue 10 Mar 2025
By: Holli Mintzer
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 3 Mar 2025
Issue 24 Feb 2025
Issue 17 Feb 2025
Issue 10 Feb 2025
By: Alexandra Munck
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 27 Jan 2025
By: River
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