Size / / /

I open the refrigerator and instead of food
it is stocked with automatic weapons
and hand guns and ammunition.

I make love to my wife and find
that she has a third eye
where her navel should be.

I have a clock that makes a different noise every hour.
Sometimes it sings like a bird.
Sometimes it is a train pulling into a station.
At least once a day it is a bullfight or a shuttle launch.
I take it to a jeweler's to have it fixed.
He tells me not to fool with it or it will melt.

I have a giant flea for a pet.
It has little dogs running around on it.

When I turn on the TV the stereo comes on.
When I turn on the stereo the toaster heats up.
When I pop a slice of split-topped wheat into the toaster
the garbage disposal begins devouring itself.
I have all of this memorized.
It changes every day.

At the back of my walk-in bedroom closet
there is a giant zipper that runs
vertically from the floor to nearly the ceiling.
I have never touched it.
Believe me.


The author of twenty-six books, Bruce Boston has published in hundreds of magazines and anthologies, including Asimov's SF, Weird Tales, Pushcart Prize Anthology, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards anthology. In 1999 the Science Fiction Poetry Association honored him with the first Grand Master Award in its twenty-two year history. He would be delighted if you sent him mail.



Bruce Boston is the author of forty-seven books and chapbooks, including the novels The Guardener's Tale and Stained Glass Rain. His writing has received the Bram Stoker Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Asimov's Readers Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You can read more about him at www.bruceboston.com and see some of his previous work 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
It was always a beautiful day on April 22, 1952.
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
Friday: The 23rd Hero by Rebecca Anne Nguyen 
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Load More