Size / / /

I am taking back the moon

for the lunatics,

the lovers,

and the poets.

Real estate agents

may notice a gap in the night sky

and put away their signs.

The scientists can measure

the diameter of this darker

darkness,

triangulate its distance from Earth,

and conclude what's missing

must be the moon.

But I have it right here

under my arm,

wrapped in a notebook

leaking light,

and am coming toward you

with a poem it helped me write.

I pull it out and read by the moon's light:

         The Swimmer

     He dives into the moon

     from the pier on the lake,

     hits his target dead center;

     and, coming up for air,

     finds none.




Duane Ackerson's poetry has appeared in Rolling Stone, Yankee, Prairie Schooner, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Cloudbank, alba, Starline, Dreams & Nightmares, and several hundred other places. He has won two Rhysling awards and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Salem, Oregon. You can find more of his work in our archives.
Current Issue
16 Dec 2024

Across the train tracks from BWI station, a portal shimmered in the shade of a patch of tall trees. From her seat on a northbound train taking on passengers, Dottie watched a woman slip a note out of her pocket, place it under a rock, strip off her work uniform, then walk naked, smiling, into the portal.
exposing to the bone just how different we are
a body protesting thinks itself as a door out of a darkroom, a bullet, too.
In this episode of SH@25, Editor Kat Kourbeti sits down with Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li to discuss her foray into poetry, screenwriting, music composition and more, and also presents a reading of her two poems published in 2022, 'Ave Maria' and 'The Mezzanine'.
Wednesday: The Theme Park of Women’s Bodies by Maggie Cooper 
Friday: Your Own Dark Shadow: A Selection of Lost Irish Horror Stories edited by Jack Fennell 
Issue 9 Dec 2024
Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
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
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