Small Wonders

ACCESS DENIED - Small Wonders Rapunzel, Rapunzel / let down your hair. // Access denied.

Lydian Kind's poem "ACCESS DENIED" is an unusual look at Rapunzel's story.

Gemini creatures - Small Wonders No one Links with dogs anymore / too mortal, too fragile, too soft

We love dogs, even though we know they can't stay with us forever, as we see in Rachael Brooks's "Gemini creatures".

No one Links with dogs anymore,
too mortal, too fragile, too soft,
but he signs the forms anyway

Saguaro Wedding - Small Wonders Might be said there never was no marriage between crow and cactus. Might be. But anyone telling you that’d be lying.

We love the voice in Jordan Kurella's story "Saguaro Wedding", about celebrating the crow and cactus wedding.

Five Hundred Defects - Small Wonders You’ll hunt me down, of course. Humans will play it for laughs: “Inspection robot goes haywire, starts inspecting everything!”

We love us a robot story about striving for freedom, and Michael Zahniser's "Five Hundred Defects" delivers just that in style.

We’re sorry this wasn’t available earlier. It turns out our server slept in for Daylight Saving Time. @chasej.xyz’s excellent story is now up!

smallwondersmag.com/piece/i-once...

What would you do to become the person you should always have been? Come wrestle with that question along with the narrator of "I Once Fell in Love With a Jackalope", by @chasej.xyz .
smallwondersmag.com/...

Behind the scenes peeks into the editorial process? Chats with the Small Wonders team? Cool new stickers and/or ideas for cool new stickers?

If we were to offer perks (on a discord server, for instance) for upgraded subscriptions, what would you like to see included? Give us ideas so we can give you goodies!

Modern Cassandra - Small Wonders Modern Cassandra tries so hard to warn us, but all her visions go to Junk. I have an important revelation! she writes. I saw you in my dreams.

In Julia August's story, Modern Cassandra is here to warn you, but alas, all of her warnings go to the spam folder.

An Insect Who Dreamt She Was a Woman - Small Wonders Last night I dreamt we were brown marmorated stink bugs. The graceful dance of your proboscis left me enthralled—waiting, wanting.

What kind of insect would you and your partner be? The protagonist of Melanie Mulrooney's story "An Insect Who Dreamt She Was a Woman" cycles through many options as they sleep.

They Live So Little and They Die So Fast - Small Wonders Such tiny things, mice, the cat reflected. They live so little and they die so fast.

Today, Jesterbells invites us to consider the circular nature of life in her piece, "They Live So Little and They Die So Fast".

Obsolete Is a Word That No Longer Exists - Small Wonders At one am, we remember how precious it is / to have lived to forty.

There's a special kind of surprised delight in realizing that you've outlived your planned obsolescence, as in Manuela Amiouny's poem "Obsolete is a Word That No Longer Exists".

Cutting the Cord - Small Wonders The aliens didn’t know: they only saw / what seemed to be a baby up in space.

Have you ever wondered what aliens might make of the glittering objects far above our heads? Marie Brennan's poem "Cutting the Cord" offers one possibility.

tell us about doubt - Small Wonders A priest / of the Universe / began

We love a good erasure poem, where the poet creates a poem by removing words from an existing text. In "tell us about doubt", Rath Mercury has gifted us with a two-stranded poem about the universe.

Have a Nice Apocalypse! - Small Wonders Judith always tried to look at the bright side. She knew as well as anyone that life could be cruel, but what good came from moping?

The world is awful right now, but know that, if worse comes to worst, Judith will be here to tell you to "Have a Nice Apocalypse!"

Gifted and Talented - Small Wonders Being beyond time is a revolution against creation most bodies aren’t built to bear. It’ll kill you, that dark matter time.

.Rikarirang⁷'s story "Gifted and Talented" from Issue 27 shows us the cost of being good at time travel.

I'm proud to say that--for the first time--I have a poem nominated in both the short and long categories of the Rhysling Award.

"Black Hole Framing" at @foofarawpress.bsky.social and "An Aging AI Tries to Remember Its Life" at @smallwondersmag.com

Sapphic

Mecha

Jousting

The Seven Virtues of Chevalière Jacqueline Aridon - Small Wonders When Jacqueline learned she would not meet Chevalière Violette Montagne until the final mêlée, she proclaimed, “Thank God.”

Start your Monday off by reviewing the seven virtues and how Chevalière Jacqueline Aridon embodies them while taking part in mech jousting in today's story by S. C. Mills .

It's a buck wild time to be putting together our little social media posts for next month's @smallwondersmag.com issue.

Tasks for the Mourning, or Flowers as for Flesh - Small Wonders 1. Say something kind about the day, / perhaps / that it will be good enough.

Finally, G.E. Wood's Tasks for the Mourning, or Flowers as for Flesh invites us to sit with grief for our past selves. smallwondersmag.com/...
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False Beet - Small Wonders Her lips pale as chalk, / she begs me for sustenance. / There is nothing left.

False Beet, by RJ Aurand, touches on love and consumption and lives intertwined. smallwondersmag.com/...
4/5

An Aging AI Tries to Remember Its Life - Small Wonders Please—don’t let my fading / algorithms forget a life that was / more than fear mixing with hope.

.Casey Aimer brought us An Aging AI Tries to Remember Its Life, an elegy for an intelligence facing the end of its life and the hope of rebirth. smallwondersmag.com/...
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An Ache With No Name - Small Wonders They do not have words for the pain / and do not speak to you of healing.

Next is An Ache With No Name, by Toby MacNutt. What do you have sunk into your bones? smallwondersmag.com/...
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Renfield at His Windowsill - Small Wonders The thing is, I started eating spiders / to remind myself of the way your kisses

We're thrilled to have published five poems that are on this year's Rhysling Award nomination list! First up is Renfield At His Windowsill, by Courtney Floyd, about mad desire and love in the face of indifference. smallwondersmag.com/...
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Psst, can we interest you in a cover for next month's issue? We love Sandy Butchers's bucolic painting of a young kid with their dragon. It's not too late to get this issue if you subscribe today! smallwonders.lemonsq...

This is such a good story - if you've been sleeping on either @jenniferhudak.bsky.social or @smallwondersmag.com then you are missing out!!

Doves Fly in the Morning - Small Wonders Engineering near-light speed travel felt a hell of a lot easier than saying goodbye.

Let yourself enjoy the bond between human and ship, a true artificial intelligence worthy of the word, in "Doves Fly in the Morning" by Sam W. Pisciotta:

To Kiss the Chrysanthemum Moon - Small Wonders In the capital, there is a bronze statue of a warrior with her bow drawn, arrow aflame to commemorate the soldier who stopped the Jiāng Shī invasion. New recruits touch her arrowhead for luck.

Every monument tells a different story, depending on your perspective. Find a new perspective today in Wen Wen Yang's "To Kiss the Chrysanthemum Moon":

A Simulacrum of Self - Small Wonders At age thirteen, Caroline makes a walking, talking simulacrum of herself. Just another science fair project, at first—Applications of computer programming in modern witchcraft—but she spends so long admiring the results that she can't quite bring herself not to take it for a test drive before she gives away the game by presenting a posterboard about it.

We all shift who we are, at least a little bit, in different contexts. But what happens when you lose sight of who you are when you're by yourself? Check out "A Simulacrum of Self" by Aimee Ogden to find out: