Size / / /

I was bearded with words.

Prepositions curled around

my mouth, and below

my chin participles

dangled.

I reveled in sideburns Whitmanesque,

and all admired the love-letter

moustaches, ironically drooping

over a hate-mail

goatee.

But the verbose foliage scrawled

along my jaw bored you.

With an eraser I shaved,

watching adjectives

scatter

and nouns pile below me

in the basin. Above

the wordy waste I stared

at the mirror, bald-faced and

mute.


Jamieson Ridenhour is a writer and musician currently based in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he teaches British Literature at the University of Mary. Jamieson can be reached by email at jridenhour@umary.edu.



Jamieson Ridenhour (http://www.jamiesonridenhour.com) is the author of Barking Mad: A Reginald Spiffington Mystery (Typecast, 2011). He is the creator of the award-winning short fairy-tale horror film Cornerboys, as well as editor of the Valancourt edition of Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 vampire novella Carmilla.
Current Issue
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.”
Issue 23 Feb 2026
Spec Fic and the Politics of Identity 
Issue 16 Feb 2026
Issue 9 Feb 2026
Issue 2 Feb 2026
By: Natasha King
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 26 Jan 2026
Issue 19 Jan 2026
Issue 12 Jan 2026
Issue 5 Jan 2026
Strange Horizons
Issue 22 Dec 2025
Load More