Size / / /

Wish-wakened, wind-hastened
wisp-whim—
here I am.
For what dark conspiracies
have you conjured me?

Don't use me long,
expect too much,
for I'm light-of-mind,
a harum-scarum fellow,
dusty husk not much
more substantial
than a moonbeam, ma'am.

Oh, so it's for that, then,
that you bid me rise
from my soft bed of self-stuff
and shake a leg?

I comply,
press your hands
between these vacant gloves,
tousle your hefty hair,
confide almost-somethings
into your ear.
Just don't request a
candlelit romancing;
where flames flaunt their fervor
you'll never find me.

Alas, now I'm the worse for wear.
One o'clock shadow shades
my rag-bag cheek,
a button eye
has popped its thread,
my wheaten locks scatter

to the four corners of the air.
Breeze bows me, madame,
at my waist.
I bid adieu
before your ardor
has undone me quite.




Sandi Leibowitz has been, among other things, the Sands Point Hag, a psaltery player, a secretary at NY's Museum of Natural History, a fundraising associate, and a school librarian. Her speculative fiction and poetry may be found at Mythic Delirium, Goblin Fruit, Luna Station Quarterly, and other far-out places.
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Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons will open to general fiction submissions on October 1, 2026, at 3 p.m. UTC! This window will remain open until we hit our submission cap of 1,000 stories. Our maximum word count for this window will be 5,000 words. We offer payment of 9¢/word USD. We do not read simultaneous or multiple submissions. Response time: Our goal is to respond to all submissions with either a hold notice or rejection within eight weeks. We hope to send acceptances or rejections within one month of hold notices. This is ambitious, and we might fall behind schedule. Please be patient
iii. There are no protocols for plotting to kill the King, so Alise talks about killing the King, whispers her plan in the Queen’s ear while they lie tangled in the Queen’s marital bed, Alise’s fingers tracing bruises that should not be there.
missed his mouth; tongue slipped in
but to live in that dusty old apartment house... crawling with Satanists
In this episode of Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, AJ Odasso and Electra Pritchett join Dan Hartland to talk about popular fiction.
We’re especially happy to announce some new appointments at the Reviews Department.
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By: Aimee Ogden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 6 Jul 2026
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