Size / / /

Watergate

is a quaint bedtime story

Why send minions

on clandestine capers

when I can move like air

through my rival's HQ

caressing surveillance cameras

and blowing whisper kisses

in security guards' ears

I'm too old to run for president

but identity theft has knocked off a few years

I'm supermodel thin

and the body suit I wear

(bandages are HMO-shabby)

adds additional firmness

No cash on cosmetic surgery,

zero time on hair and makeup,

leaves more of me for you, dear voter

A woman president is nothing new,

but an invisible woman president—that's change

My opponents are hesitant

to mention my condition

(no one says "disability")

I am able to infiltrate terrorist tunnels—

my foreign policy platform—

but a fix for the economy, alas, remains

invisible.


Karen A. Romanko has seen over 100 of her poems and short stories published in venues such as Aberrant Dreams, Ideomancer, Lone Star Stories, The Pedestal Magazine, and Full Unit Hookup. She also edits and publishes e-zine Raven Electrick and recently released the trade paperback anthology Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic. More of Karen's work is available in the Strange Horizons archive. You can view Karen's website at http://romanko.org/karen. Karen can be reached by email at comments@ravenelectrick.com.



Karen A. Romanko
Current Issue
20 Jan 2025

Strange Horizons
Surveillance technology looms large in our lives, sold to us as tools for safety, justice, and convenience. Yet the reality is far more sinister.
Vans and campers, sizeable mobile cabins and some that were barely more than tents. Each one a home, a storefront, and a statement of identity, from the colorful translucent windows and domes that harvested sunlight to the stickers and graffiti that attested to places travelled.
“Don’t ask me how, but I found out this big account on queer Threads is some kind of super Watcher.” Charlii spins her laptop around so the others can see. “They call them Keepers, and they watch the people that the state’s apparatus has tagged as terrorists. Not just the ones the FBI created. The big fish. And people like us, I guess.”
It's 9 a.m., she still hasn't eaten her portion of tofu eggs with seaweed, and Amaia wants the day to be over.
Nadjea always knew her last night in the Clave would get wild: they’re the only sector of the city where drink and drug and dance are unrestricted, and since one of the main Clavist tenets is the pursuit of corporeal joy in all its forms, they’ve more or less refined partying to an art.
surviving / while black / is our superpower / we lift broken down / cars / over our heads / and that’s just a tuesday
After a few deft movements, she tossed the cube back to James, perfectly solved. “We’re going to break into the Seattle Police Department’s database. And you’re going to help me do it.”
there are things that are toxic to a bo(d)y
By: Michelle Kulwicki
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
  In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Michelle Kulwicki's 'Bee Season' read by Emmie Christie Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.
Wednesday: Motheater by Linda H. Codega 
Friday: Revising Reality: How Sequels, Remakes, Retcons, and Rejects Explain The World by Chris Gavaler and Nat Goldberg 
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
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
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