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The nights there in the mountains
were cool, almost cold
and we spent the summer
tilling, churning, and sipping
moonshine and sweet sable wine.

One night we got an old
TV-VCR combo working
and watched My Cousin Vinny
four or five times
and laughed at all the jokes
and at the way things used to be.

We never talked about the war,
but instead nailed it to an aspen
near the latrine and regarded it
sometimes, warily in passing
our tragedies kept neatly
on the shores of conversation,
sealed safe in the half-dream
mumbles of predawn waking.

Still on quiet evenings,
you could almost hear
the world falling out there
somewhere, everywhere
beyond the sunset.

We knew that the bugs
would find us eventually,
the signs were all around us:
the bird cherries turned black in spring,
swarms of salmon flies
dropped dead out of the sky,
the body of a malformed doe
not two miles from camp
her left flank half a-comb
of dripping hive honey.

And one night,
Rache even woke
to find creeping upon her leg,
the nine-inch form of what might
have once been an insect,
orchid-like and bleeding color;
sipping ichor, incepting her veins
with its own nymph dreams
and infectious spotted fever.

After Sadie crushed it with her Bible,
its remains resembled half a mantis,
half a shattered hard drive.

It belonged to no army we knew
(we knew no armies under our rock)
the rogue run off the beaten path,
its serial, logo, and man.date were to us
like all the world beyond the woods,
mangled, mutant, and indiscernible.



Mack W. Mani is an award winning author, poet, and screenwriter. His work has appeared in magazines and anthologies including Spectral Realms, The Pedestal Magazine, and The Rhysling Anthology. In 2018 he won Best Screenplay at The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. He currently lives with his husband in Portland, Oregon.
Current Issue
18 Mar 2024

Welcome New Fiction Editor! 
Strange Horizons
We are very happy to welcome Dante Luiz as a new fiction editor on the team! Dante is a Ignyte Award winning author, and has been with Strange Horizons working as an Art Director for the past several years. We’re stoked to bring him on to the fiction side and have him bring his wonderful insight and skill to the fiction team.
The Cyborg’s Side of the Story 
in my defence, juggling biological and artificial, i tripped over my shoelace, and spilled my lungs empty of the innocence that was, before guilt.
Aviary 
the birds, / who carry with them / the many names of the dead
Feeder Fish 
Day in and day out, the rough waters of the Pacific slam themselves against the protrusion of sandstone the locals refer to as Morro Rock. White streaks of bird shit bleed down the rock, a testament to the rare birds of prey that nest in its pocked face overlooking the bay.
Monday: Twice Lived by Joma West 
Wednesday: Overlap: The Lives of a Former Time Jumper by N. Joseph Glass 
Issue 11 Mar 2024
Issue 4 Mar 2024
Issue 26 Feb 2024
Issue 19 Feb 2024
Issue 12 Feb 2024
Issue 5 Feb 2024
Issue 29 Jan 2024
Issue 15 Jan 2024
Issue 8 Jan 2024
Issue 1 Jan 2024
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