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This city is filled with ghosts

 

they laugh on patios, you can see

the foot prints, the paths

they walked like glowing pebbles in the moonlight.

 

This melody is filled with ghosts

 

they join you in the dance, the steps

you have traced over until you are at the corner

of a street you do not remember walking,

absentmindedly losing the choreography.

 

This life is filled with ghosts.

 

they come into your house and make coffee.

they gaze too long at your mortality

until you wish your body

was so transparent

 

as the stories you have walked through

their pieces strewn across the blocks,

the song, the walls.



Lynne Sargent is a writer, aerialist, and holds a Ph.D. in Applied Philosophy. They are the poetry editor at Utopia Science Fiction magazine. Their work has been nominated for Rhysling, Elgin, and Aurora Awards, and has appeared in venues such as Augur Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Daily Science Fiction. To find out more, reach out to them on Twitter @SamLynneS or for a complete bibliography visit them at scribbledshadows.wordpress.com.
Current Issue
11 May 2026

If only Serthe'P had been able to fit in, maybe she could have protected —. No. This thought was dangerous. Mnth’R had helped her understand that their isolation had more to do with the Raja’s exploitation of their cast’s fears than any shortcomings of theirs, his Manifest Sight propaganda curdling climate anxieties into prejudice against community members. Serthe’P needed to remember that their lives mattered too much to be reduced by a tyrant’s ideology. Separated from the cast, they were still finding ways to take care of each other.
Siberia our first home / wild and remote–safe / but Alexei wanted more / theatre–dances–rich men
Change requires examination of the initial errors
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2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Issue 2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons
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