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1.

I was riding a bike around town

though I haven't ridden a bike in years.

The dreambike had eyes on its spokes,

These spun as the wheels turned,

and were there to alert me

to approaching meteorites

and mad dogs.

Further proof of the reality of this dreambike

was that I hadn't been hit yet

by an angry rock from space

or bitten by

an overexcited dog from earth.




Duane Ackerson's poetry has appeared in Rolling Stone, Yankee, Prairie Schooner, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, Cloudbank, alba, Starline, Dreams & Nightmares, and several hundred other places. He has won two Rhysling awards and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Salem, Oregon. You can find more of his work in our archives.
Current Issue
3 Aug 2026

I had a daughter and then I didn’t. I woke in the cradle of midnight, shivering from a supernatural cold. I thought at first that she was crying, that she had woken me, like so many midnights before. But there was silence all around me. I sat up on one arm and peered into her crib. She was gone. In her place was wrapped a sallow, horned little boy. His eyes blinked open. I look at him. He looked at me. Changeling, I thought. Then he started to scream. “Why weren’t the windows
The deads are punctual. They arrive exactly when there is nothing left to distract us.
survival is a fungus
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Amritesh Mukherjee and Abigail Nussbaum join Dan Hartland to talk about literary awards.
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By: Aimee Ogden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
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Issue 15 Jun 2026
Issue 14 Jun 2026
Issue 8 Jun 2026
Issue 1 Jun 2026
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