Size / / /

Content warning:


Once, you handed me half a heart,
a pretty keepsake, as if love
could be contained in glass,
displayed as truth,
a weapon, a warning,
a silver bullet against
every demon
you fashioned in the dark—
but you cornered the wrong monster.

You offered honey
but arrived with too much grief,
a gift of quicksand kisses,
a ruin of howling
keening
between every word,
the ghost of love
conjured as fruit, ripe
as belladonna,
too much and the sleep
is endless—
but a witch always knows.

You think this story is yours,
but it isn’t; you haven’t escaped
the labyrinth, this stone river
knows what you have done,
what you stole, what you broke,
what you burned to ash—
there is no mercy here,
only haunting,
a cadre of shame
brandishing knives—
and you abandoned
the wrong Fate.

Now, you wake
godless, soul-hollow,
your chest vacant
and clockless,
ribs perfectly arranged
around the emptiness,
this cathedral of lies,
this once-holy space,
ringing with a dark hymn
only the damned will ever hear—
look down,
you are standing in your own grave.



Ali Trotta is an award-nominated poet, a word-nerd, and an unapologetic coffee addict. Find her poetry in Uncanny, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Small Wonders, The Deadlands, Fireside, Cicada, Nightmare, Mermaids Monthly, and The Best of Uncanny Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in Worlds of Possibilities. Website: alitrotta.com, Newsletter: buttondown.email/alwayscoffee, Bluesky: @alwayscoffee, and Instagram: @alwayscoffee7.
Current Issue
17 Feb 2025

crocodile, crocodile, may we cross your river?
We have always / been a ghosthouse
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, Kat Kourbeti sits down with longtime friend and Seattle Worldcon Poet Laureate Brandon O'Brien, chatting all things speculative poetry, and the impact of markets that have many readers and editors—hey wait, that's us!
The city is no place for a spider.
Wednesday: Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera 
Friday: High Vaultage by Chris and Jen Sugden 
Issue 10 Feb 2025
By: Alexandra Munck
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 27 Jan 2025
By: River
Issue 20 Jan 2025
Strange Horizons
By: Michelle Kulwicki
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 13 Jan 2025
Issue 6 Jan 2025
By: Samantha Murray
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 23 Dec 2024
Issue 16 Dec 2024
Issue 9 Dec 2024
Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Load More