A Midsummer Night's Dream by Adam McOmber
Editorial intern Madison Kline on today’s short: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Adam McOmber is a fun twist on a Shakespearean classic. The story perfectly captures the comedic elements of the original play, while bringing a modern voice to the page. Like Lysander falls head over heels for Hermia, you’ll fall for this short, which is nothing short of magical.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Praise all the things that might be fucked. The riverbanks. Flowers called wild pansy and thyme and oxlip. Fruitless visions. Clouds full fast. Athenians and handsome, strong Lysander. Praise the rivers and the fog. The moons and acorn trees. A thrust of the hips. And another thrust. Spray it all with love-juice and watch as it transforms. A burning wound will open, and out will spill rubies and hounds and graves and the darkness like a dream. And still, you will be fucking. Always down and deeper. Until you find a young man with the head of an ass. His cock, so long it drags in the brambles of the forest floor. And as he makes his furrows there, weeds will grow and shady cloisters and a chanting of faint hymns. Dress the donkey-eared youth in lilies and hyacinth and send him along a shaded path to a circle made of stones. Remind him that fairies are nothing more than dead men, and common sleep is a charm made of honeysuckle and mournfulness and wavering love. By now, you’ll be growing tired yourself. You’ll feel dogged and slow, all rotted through. Soon, you too will think of sleep. And what will come to you, I wonder? Will it be the fairy king with his eyes all black, hands cold and reaching? Or maybe another grinning imp, all decked in violets and musk-rose. Some passionate word. Some quaking fear. The forest sounds like midnight, doesn’t it? The heavy gait. The starlit field. Let me touch you on your brow. Let me tell you that you are young. There are answers, you know? You shall play it in a mask. The moon wanes. See how it goes?
Adam McOmber is the author of five novels: “The White Forest,” “Jesus and John,” “The Ghost Finders*,” “Hound of the Baskervilles,” and the forthcoming “With Blood Upon His Teeth” (2026). His short fiction collections include “My House Gathers Desires,” “This New & Poisonous Air,” and “Fantasy Kit.” He is co-chair of the Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, editor-in-chief of “Hunger Mountain,” and director of the Unapologetically Creative Writers’ Conference held at CalArts.
