Size / / /

All this time I loved you and never guessed.

I didn't know about luyebread, winter cladophylls, water's

refusal to freeze. Restfulness. I've acquiesced.

I didn't know I loved the sound of dehiscing flodders.

I didn't know about luyebread, winter cladophylls, water's

smooth coolness in the oven summers' throat unbeaten,

I didn't know I loved the sound of dehiscing flodders.

Didn't know about spotberry tea never before drunk unsweetened,

its smooth coolness in the oven summers' throat unbeaten,

pulling prickles out of tambalan and sucking them nectar-clean.

Didn't know about spotberry tea never before drunk unsweetened,

sol juleps, fried jambwort, the ubiquity of mycopeen,

pulling prickles out of tambalan and sucking them nectar-clean,

the way plumigan flock to the mowthorn at suggestions of snow.

Sol juleps, fried jambwort, even the ubiquity of mycopeen.

The new-fallen way the hacahuistes glow.

The way plumigan flock to the mowthorn at suggestions of snow,

this refusal to freeze. Restfulness. I've acquiesced

to the new-fallen way the hacahuistes glow.

Andromeda, I loved you all along and never guessed.




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
12 Jan 2026

Despite the barriers between different cetacean languages, our song crosses the vastness of the oceans, traveling in sync with the currents and even traversing great expanses of land. Our singing conveys the concept of “hope,” which is how we define the wait until our home feels safe again.
When you falter, recall that age is not your master
Do you swallow big blue whale eyes straight out of the jar?
When Le Guin talks about genre writers as “the realists of a larger reality” we surrender the power of that when we narrow our work to only depict one type of future. We have great power to restore alternate narratives, to re-broaden the range of imaginable futures.
Friday: An Instruction in Shadow by Benedict Jacka 
Issue 5 Jan 2026
Strange Horizons
Issue 22 Dec 2025
Issue 15 Dec 2025
Strange Horizons
Issue 8 Dec 2025
Issue 1 Dec 2025
Issue 24 Nov 2025
Issue 17 Nov 2025
Issue 10 Nov 2025
By: B. Pladek
Podcast read by: Arden Fitzroy
Issue 3 Nov 2025
Issue 20 Oct 2025
By: miriam
Load More