Size / / /

This morning,
on my way to work,
I pass a raven perched on top
of the tall silver
antenna of the light pole.

It is like a hawk that took possession
of this electric creature
and drained it of its phosphorescent juice.

"Dark rules; dark rules,"
it tells me.

 

Copyright © 2003 Duane Ackerson

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Duane Ackerson has received a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and several Rhysling Awards from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Collections of his poems and prose poems include The Eggplant & Other Absurdities and, most recently, The Bird at the End of the Universe.



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.
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2 Mar 2026

Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
Once I’ve finished writing, I will fold this letter up and tuck it into the Tristram you kindly loaned me (may it be our Galeotto … ). I’ll knock on your door, at which point I will most likely encounter a puzzled maidservant, who will ask who in the world I am, and I will explain that I am returning a book you were kind enough to bestow on me (generous creature that you are and clearly down-on-their-luck weatherworn would-be poet that I am).
the trees were softening, their bark for the hungry to scrape and scrape and spread it on whatever bread they could beg or bake
i must warn you before all else / before you poke and prod
Paul Kincaid and Dawn Macdonald join Dan Hartland to discuss style.
Strange Horizons
2 Mar 2026
Strange Horizons invites non-fiction submissions for our March 30 special issue on “Fungi in SFF.”
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