Size / / /

Where in summer the thirsty earth sucks up the sprinklers and the ground is turning green, the sky blue. Where somebody has stomped one of them into a lilac-colored jam nobody will touch, drying in the sun. Where the water mains making the harbor are surrounded by the white flurry of imported wings.

Where in autumn we make out in one-person cubicles, thunder pattering on the dome and the radio talking about the benefits of a perfect seam. Where company regs are ignored. Where careless spacesuits grow too thin on the backside or lose an elastic and nobody cares 'cause the air's been worked out.

Where in the first winter this planet has known, we're light enough to stay on top of the snow's thick crust. From this distance we can't hear the snow's crust breaking under their feet, but we know the sound and see their footsteps' deep blue shadows and their occasional bodies and try not to think about it.

In our dreams our bodies are lighter than they should be, our heads heavier, as though we've stared up at the sky for too long and can no longer tell whether our feet touch the ground or there's even any ground to touch, as if the sky just goes on and on.




Joanne Merriam is the publisher at Upper Rubber Boot Books. She is a new American living in Nashville, having immigrated from Nova Scotia. She most recently edited Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good, and her own poetry has appeared in dozens of places including Asimov's, The Fiddlehead, Grain, and previously in Strange Horizons.
Current Issue
5 Oct 2026

In time, the entire shift’s 138 Express inbound transfers are processed, and I’m free to service passengers from other lines. These transfers are unremarkable. These passengers aren’t refugees.
Forgive me, someone.
Turn on the stove. See it startle.
In this episode of Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by Ryan Elliot and Rosanna Pendlebury, to ask questions about literary SFF. What is it? How do we know it when we see it? And what’s it good for?
Wednesday: Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler 
Friday: The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester 
Issue 28 Sep 2026
Issue 21 Sep 2026
Wednesday: Khauf 
,
Issue 14 Sep 2026
Strange Horizons
Issue 7 Sep 2026
Strange Horizons
Issue 31 Aug 2026
Issue 24 Aug 2026
Issue 17 Aug 2026
Issue 10 Aug 2026
Issue 3 Aug 2026
Issue 27 Jul 2026
Load More