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Love Mojo Gone Wrong

It's an easy mojo to tag upon your man

(albeit in a red flannel bag in your boot):

write his name nine times in blood ink and

twine with his hair about a John the Conqueror root

sprinkle on pure Come To Me Stay With Me Oil

you might add a Queen Elizabeth root to be sure

but if there's a shift in spelling a vowel unsteady

or your handwriting drifts or gets rough

you might have two besotted Smiths at the ready

worse...an entire male generation in the buff

counter mojo: use Chase Away Oil erase names

Love Potion Number 9.5

Besides dosing with both eyes of newt

and a big pinch of Ma's Organic Loveroot

the dead-giveaway clue that you've wibbletated

the brew in the alchemist's laundry room

is how anything it even lightly touches

discolors like a lovebite from a vacuum

and you're left stalking cute cops cute perps

or their no-so-cute vics inside the chalk lines

you're just outright kissing frogs or

dog-licking moms on 34th & Vine

full remedy: take two regretamine

Love Wish Voodoo Marks

With a doll—there's a cross of swamp oak inside

and the tear-soaked stuffing of Spanish moss

the pins only affix and direct the slow hex

like the Xs on the tomb of Marie Laveau

with her mausoleum—you place a pattern

you can't just deface it any which way

three red marks in St. Louis Cemetery

then she grants a love wish a bit of fun

but should you pin or X a forbidden spot

you might reverse the structure of your plot

the re-reversal: a kiss on Bayou Loup-garou




Robert Frazier is the author of eight previous books of poetry, and a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. He has won an Asimov's Reader Award and been on the final ballot for a Nebula Award for fiction. His books include Perception BarriersThe Daily Chernobyl, and Phantom Navigation (2012). His 2002 poem "A Crash Course in Lemon Physics" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Recent works have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Dreams & Nightmares, and Strange Horizons. His long poem "Wreck-Diving the Starship" was a runner-up for a 2011 Rhysling Award. He can be reached by email at raf@nantucket.net.
Current Issue
20 Jan 2025

Strange Horizons
Surveillance technology looms large in our lives, sold to us as tools for safety, justice, and convenience. Yet the reality is far more sinister.
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“Don’t ask me how, but I found out this big account on queer Threads is some kind of super Watcher.” Charlii spins her laptop around so the others can see. “They call them Keepers, and they watch the people that the state’s apparatus has tagged as terrorists. Not just the ones the FBI created. The big fish. And people like us, I guess.”
It's 9 a.m., she still hasn't eaten her portion of tofu eggs with seaweed, and Amaia wants the day to be over.
Nadjea always knew her last night in the Clave would get wild: they’re the only sector of the city where drink and drug and dance are unrestricted, and since one of the main Clavist tenets is the pursuit of corporeal joy in all its forms, they’ve more or less refined partying to an art.
surviving / while black / is our superpower / we lift broken down / cars / over our heads / and that’s just a tuesday
After a few deft movements, she tossed the cube back to James, perfectly solved. “We’re going to break into the Seattle Police Department’s database. And you’re going to help me do it.”
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By: Michelle Kulwicki
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
  In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Michelle Kulwicki's 'Bee Season' read by Emmie Christie Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.
Wednesday: Motheater by Linda H. Codega 
Friday: Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain The World by Chris Gavaler and Nat Goldberg 
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