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My pupils sizzle into pinpricks
at the sudden light,
corrugated roof peeling back
like a tin can’s lid.

For longer than you think,
I have lived in this fox-body,
loved darkness with my needle-teeth,
rolled in earth to hold its scent,
screamed in winter at gently popping trees,
stolen savory beating hearts buried
deep in feathered bodies.

Your son holds the lantern high,
and I, caught and cornered,
jaws locked around a chicken neck,
wonder how long it has been
since I was human, whether
justice is still as tricky as knowing
where to bite, and who
left the boy’s young face bruised
as the flesh of a dropped peach.

The gunshot is a hot and sulfurous orange,
but the pain is already fading
as I dive into the cool black pool
of the boy’s rapidly dilating eye.



J. Federle is a wandering lover of ghost stories. She left Kentucky to study poetry in England. Now she lives in Peru with her husband and cow-colored dog, writing her own ghost stories. The Saturday Evening Post, Threepenny Review, and NoSleep Podcast have published her work. Find more of her writing at jfederle.com and @JFederleWrites (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook).
Current Issue
2 Dec 2024

For nine straight miles, the hot-rolled steel rails cut a path through the woods, a metal chain thrown into soft mud. Discarded, rotting railroad ties littered the tracksides, the stench of creosote saturating the forest air until birds no longer frequented the trees.
I didn’t complain about him / being a werewolf / He thought I didn’t know
Dark against the sky of steel / And men gather to get to its top
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents A Cure for Solastalgia by E.M. Linden, read by Jenna Hanchley. Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: Spotify
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