Size / / /

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The ocean threads our hair
with the loam of
night forgotten.
I've counted the hours
since you have quivered to
life in the core of me,
folding outward in twos and fours
and sixes.
Our body divides.
Morning
presses
through mangroves
with a fat and milky fist
and I can see the day unfolding
on our skin.
I washed away your
brothers and sisters in the
brackish slurry
between my legs,
their screams the
beating of moth wings
and fairy dust.

You will only miss
them when I
am gone.

They will call you
Calvaluna,
Cambion,
a jumble of bones and
meat clinging to
the idea of arms and legs.
Half formed now
in our body,
you the murky reflection,
the lees of the Atlantic
washed ashore
with the
caridea and the ballyhoo.
Small.
Malignant.
Monstrous.

Beautiful.



Lora Gray is a nonbinary speculative fiction writer and poet from Northeast Ohio. They have been published in F&SF, Uncanny, and Asimov’s, among other places, and their poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award. You can find Lora online at lora-gray.com.
Current Issue
25 Sep 2023

People who live in glass houses are surrounded by dirt birds
After a century, the first colony / of bluebirds flew out of my mouth.
Over and over the virulent water / beat my flame down to ash
In this episode of  Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan talk to critic and poet Catherine Rockwood about how reviewing and criticism feed into creative practice. Also, pirates.
Writing authentic stories may require you to make the same sacrifice. This is not a question of whether or not you are ready to write indigenous literature, but whether you are willing to do so. Whatever your decision, continue to be kind to indigenous writers. Do not ask us why we are not famous or complain about why we are not getting support for our work. There can only be one answer to that: people are too busy to care. At least you care, and that should be enough to keep my culture alive.
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