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My grandfather once
gave me a little
machine.

“You could count all the faces
and all the birds in the sky
on this machine,” he told me.

“You could count
every hair
on my body

and every hand
that has ever existed

on this machine.

It is all recorded,

the misfortunes
of all grandmothers

and even the
triumphs of an ant
have been
acknowledged
by the machine.”

Loath to let it go
he turned from me
and hurried inside.

    Left alone
with his machine

I found the answer
  to who my father
    was

        and if I would
ever be held by loving hands.

I learned why my cousin
    took his life

and why I couldn’t take
    mine.

When I closed the machine
        briefly,

  my grandfather shouted,
      “Never close it!
It needs to keep counting!”



Angel Leal is a Latine, trans/nonbinary writer whose previous work appears or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Heartlines Spec, Uncanny, Apparition Lit, and elsewhere. They’ve been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Rhysling, and Best of the Net, and they're a coadmin of CALAMITOUS, a queer SFFH writing group. You can find them at angel-leal.com or on Twitter @orbiting_angel.
Current Issue
12 May 2025

You saw her for the first time at your front door, like she wanted to sell you something or convert you. She had light hair and dark eyes, and she was wearing fatigues, which was the only way you knew that your panicked prayers of the last few minutes had not come true. “Don’t freak out,” she said. “I’m you. From—uh, let’s just say from the future. Can I come inside?”
Time will not return to you as it was.
The verdant hills they whispered of this man so apt to sin / chimney smoke was pure as mountain snow compared to him.
In this episode of Strange Horizons at 25, editor Kat Kourbeti talks to Naomi Kritzer about her non-linear writing journey, imagining positive futures, and how to deal with the world catching up to your near-future specfic.
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