Size / / /

Content warning:



Their first mistake was letting me choose the task.
These proud suitors
Sons of kings and conquerors
Star-touched and god-born
these heroes dreaming laurels upon their brows,
their bronzed shoulders gleaming with imagined glory.
I chose the track to be my battleground—
a footrace on hard-packed red earth
beneath a blazing sun.

Their second mistake was letting me set the terms.
They want just to want, take just to take.
Coffers overflowing with coin and spice,
Myths littered with the names of maidens saved, brides won.
I chose the freedom to want, to take, to be
more than diversion, than challenge,
than prize.
My story in history.
Their crowns laid at my feet.

Their third mistake was letting me compete at all.
This low-born girl
Daughter of borderlands and wilds
Friendless and nameless
without the certainty of grand auspices taken by
vapor-veiled oracles at the mouths of yawning caves.
I chose to break my chains and defy those gods
who would have me play their
thrice rigged game.

One fairest fruit to bring nations to war.
Two nectar-ripe taken as Labour performed.
Three made of gold to catch a warrior maid,
to siphon the wind from her unparalleled pace
to weigh down her spirit, and bind
her unruly mane
her hand to an unwanted marriage, the
vanity of a man who prayed.

I choose to make my own claim and bend
my life like the wanderer’s great bow,
the huntress’ crescent,
my will an arrow.

So when the trumpets blare and the starting ropes drop,
they’ll only see the flash of my earth-dark legs,
a cloud of nightshade hair, and
those damned apples I brought
tumbling in my wake.
I’ll snap sinew,
cleave meat from bone
Burn up my lungs and
ignite my blood
until I am

Storm-born
Quick as thought,
Bright as a jagged
Bolt.



Alice is a Taiwanese-American poet whose work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Liminality, Polu Texni, and Through the Gate. She loves magic, myth, and women who persist. She hates running. You can find her online at Girl On The Roam (girlontheroam.wordpress.com) or perennially on Twitter @kangaru, chatting about books and superheroes.
Current Issue
18 Mar 2024

Strange Horizons
We are very happy to welcome Dante Luiz as a new fiction editor on the team! Dante is a Ignyte Award winning author, and has been with Strange Horizons working as an Art Director for the past several years. We’re stoked to bring him on to the fiction side and have him bring his wonderful insight and skill to the fiction team.
Day in and day out, the rough waters of the Pacific slam themselves against the protrusion of sandstone the locals refer to as Morro Rock. White streaks of bird shit bleed down the rock, a testament to the rare birds of prey that nest in its pocked face overlooking the bay.
in my defence, juggling biological and artificial, i tripped over my shoelace, and spilled my lungs empty of the innocence that was, before guilt.
the birds, / who carry with them / the many names of the dead
Wednesday: Overlap: The Lives of a Former Time Jumper by N. Joseph Glass 
Issue 11 Mar 2024
Issue 4 Mar 2024
Issue 26 Feb 2024
Issue 19 Feb 2024
Issue 12 Feb 2024
Issue 5 Feb 2024
Issue 29 Jan 2024
Issue 15 Jan 2024
Issue 8 Jan 2024
Issue 1 Jan 2024
Load More
%d bloggers like this: