Size / / /

Glass-green the sky and the sea,

Jade-green the trees and the terrible beasts,

Lime-green the long thin trembling clouds,

And the strange moon hanging overhead

Is every shade from palest chrysoprase

Through emerald to almost black

And the alien civilization is one spinel spire

Topped with an odd aventurine dome,

Rising over the scattered glitter

Of our gutted ship. As we sift

Through gilded fragments,

We realize that

Nowhere in this emerald city is there

Any way back to Kansas.




Elizabeth Barrette writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in the fields of speculative fiction, gender studies, and alternative spirituality. She serves as Dean of Studies for the Grey School of Wizardry. She hosts a monthly Poetry Fishbowl on her blog. She enjoys suspension-of-disbelief bungee jumping and spelunking in other people's reality tunnels. You can email Elizabeth at ysabet@worthlink.net, and see more of Elizabeth's work in the books Companion for the Apprentice Wizard and Composing Magic, and in our archives.
Current Issue
18 Nov 2024

Your distress signals are understood
Somehow we’re now Harold Lloyd/Jackie Chan, letting go of the minute hand
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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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