Size / / /

1. Pavo

Somewhere

along the road

that leads down to the lake of fire,

the third peacock on the left

has had his way with you:

the blind peacock,

white in the moonlight

white as a moonbeam

(and just as elusive:

Another twister

trickster god,

speaking out of the whirlwind);

And he asks you,

And you drink.

2. The Kingfisher and the Feathered Serpent

And you wake up

Alone in the darkness

with a broken heart

in the midst of your life,

and you don't know the way.

And you stumble blindly,

feeling

in the blackness

for the longing he promised you.

My head aches, min chertz brennt,

and somewhere

down there

is the river of fire;

and yet

though you've lost your way

and everything else you had,

it feels like the way out:

so you follow the Fisher King

who might be ahead of you.

3. Interlude: Caius/Keas/Geesekeys

A bird

like you tried to build a hawk out of parrot parts

reading instructions in Greek

that will turn out to be the manual

for crows.

I wish I could meet one.

She might claw my eyes out again,

but she might tell me a river

that flows to the truth.

4. Bennu

And so

after you have slept with the King of the Salamanders

(you tried to glue

the shards of yourself back

together;

some you leave behind)

the pieces will rejoin

welded together in the fire.

You emerge

Plumage singed, like sackcloth,

streaked with ashes

that fall from your eyes.

The mourning will not frighten you

nevermore.




Josh Burson has recently returned to Maine after going to various forms of school in three other countries (even if you don't count the Connecticut shoreline.) This poem is indebted to too many sources to name, but he would like to send a special shoutout to Al McLean and Robert Ferrar Capon.
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
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