Poetry
To learn more about anthologies mentioned here, head over to the anthologies page for blurbs, retail links, and more!
Pieces marked with an asterisk (*) are available online to read for free.
Upcoming
SOLD: One Soul, Gently Used (60 lines, dark fantasy). Upcoming in Haven Speculative.
Upcoming!
2026
* Creature with the Ticking Heart (18 lines, dark fantasy). Published in Strange Horizons (January 2026).
When you falter, recall that age
is not your master.
rampion speaks (33 lines, dark fantasy). Published in Dreams & Nightmares (January 2026).
2025
* Whittled and Burned (16 lines, dark fantasy). Published in Trollbreath Magazine (December 2025).
We say that time can be burned, and so
we gather wood scraps from its ashes.
Halloween Nights (20 lines, middle-grade fantasy). Published in Spaceports & Spidersilk (October 2025)
In the sky, the wind is shrieking,
and old tree limbs are creaking, creaking.
* To the Swallow's Final Hatchling (41 lines, fantasy/fairytale). Published in Orion's Belt, August 2025 issue.
Save you your wings, little daughter,
and one day,
save your daughter's wings, too.
* What the Birds Taught Me (16 lines, speculative fiction/solarpunk). Published in Heartlines Spec Issue 8, July 31 2025.
I learned gentleness from beneath a vulture’s wing,
my cotton pad daubing at blood and scratches
left by a fox’s enterprising claws.
*
Eagle-Eyed (46 lines, slipstream/fantasy). Published in Eye to the Telescope Issue 57: Birds.
2026 Rhysling Award nominee!
The doctors had no explanation
for the bird’s eyes set into
my flawed and human head.
Beauty's Captor (34 lines, fantasy). Published in Star*Line Issue 48.3 (Summer 2025)
Note: Available to subscribers only.
Sleeping Beauty reimagined from the point of view of the vines
Bait (24 lines, dark fantasy). Published in Black Cat Tales (Black Cat Publishing), June 13 2025.
They don't realize
they're the bait.
Before the Gingerbread House (20 lines, fairytale limerick). Published in The Limerick in Chains (Lightning Cellar Books), July 22 2025.
The next morning, they set off once more
for the path they had followed before.
*
To Be the Change (43 lines, fantasy). Published in Strange Horizons, March 10 2025.
2026 Rhysling Award nominee!
2026 Nebula Award for Poetry finalist!
Reviewed by Charles Payseur in
Locus Magazine #773 as "a piece that challenges those who believe their power and corruption to be eternal,
recognizing that no amount of power or control can prevent people from knowing and following their hearts
and being themselves. Nocito does a beautiful job bringing the prophecy, and its fulfillment, to vivid life."
My father’s least favorite prophecy
has been reviewed by five generations of scholars
and soundly dismissed by them all.
When the heir becomes a daughter …
them // us (46 lines, science fiction). Published in Utopia Science Fiction, March 2025.
Note: Available to subscribers only.
They
drop from the sky at moonrise
when silver beams twist around their silver capsule.
Gretel (111 lines, dark fantasy). Published in Grimm Retold (Speculation Publications), September 24 2025.
2025 Rhysling Award nominee!
The next day, when she opens her oven to bake
another loaf of bread, Hansel pushes her in.