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[                   ] called me the other day, said he would
send me the money i needed / (                   ) said i should

be relieved: unafraid of the manipulation of it all. my dog
sleeps in the sun every day & i dream of lemon trees

from a different continent, haha, diaspora poetry, am i right,
                   anyway, I thought of _______ at the picket today, reading

Olufemi in the rain as another Indian girl held the mic up for me
& asked me to be careful of her book (her favourite): another

diaspora poem, haha, am i right, anyway I texted my psychiatrist
today — he has a job under capitalism just like me 🙂 he gives

me medicine & advice i ignore & misplaced hope in the system.
bell hooks says she came to theory because she was hurting &

i would like to know where i can go: please
hold this umbrella for me while i read this poem in the rain,

& we can go everywhere after. the academy is coopting the term
decolonisation — the university has a stake in empire — neoliberal

feminism is incomplete and insidious — reform can be positive, I want
to scream that [                   ] called me the other day & said

he would send me the money i need!!!!!!!! they are quoting Darwish
at the picket & i am finally breathing again, i wish you were here

to hold my hand & teach me abolitionđź’–we are gifted this planet
with all of its lemon trees & we are wasting it, not holding

each other’s hands while we’re here, look, sorry for
diaspora poem-ing but have you seen the news? have you

seen the hashtags? do you still watch TV? [                   ] called me
the other day, made a joke about the news, said

how awful, isn’t it all, what do we do, where do we go, i am holding
your hand through the static again, at the picket i thought of

[                   ] calling me, evil as always, nestled into the structures of
manipulation in the abusive [redacted] industrial complex, [                   ]

makes jokes sometimes, makes me sick, makes me tired, makes me
tell the stories i hate. i like the one of how my newborn

body went unheld by [                   ] until i was 6 months: the same time
that [                   ] spent not smoking. picked me up with the nicotine

addiction, haha, diaspora poetry, am i right. [                   ] will never
read this, i am thinking about the term “collective fullness” & how

everything i do is half-empty, all chemically-incoherent in my brain, i’ll say it,
                   fuck the world that makes us live like this, i will see you

at the picket
& the next one
& the next world.
                   & at all the parties we throw in this one



Umang Kalra is an Indian writer and artist living in Belfast, Ireland. She is a two-time Best of the Net Anthology finalist and a Pushcart nominee. She is the founding Editor in Chief of Violet Indigo Blue, Etc., and the author of fig (2022) and MINIMALIST SWEETHEART (-algia, 2021). Her website is umkalra.persona.co, she tweets at @umkalra, and you can buy fig and other stuff from her at etsy.com/uk/shop/umkalra.
Current Issue
18 Mar 2024

Strange Horizons
We are very happy to welcome Dante Luiz as a new fiction editor on the team! Dante is a Ignyte Award winning author, and has been with Strange Horizons working as an Art Director for the past several years. We’re stoked to bring him on to the fiction side and have him bring his wonderful insight and skill to the fiction team.
Day in and day out, the rough waters of the Pacific slam themselves against the protrusion of sandstone the locals refer to as Morro Rock. White streaks of bird shit bleed down the rock, a testament to the rare birds of prey that nest in its pocked face overlooking the bay.
in my defence, juggling biological and artificial, i tripped over my shoelace, and spilled my lungs empty of the innocence that was, before guilt.
the birds, / who carry with them / the many names of the dead
Wednesday: Overlap: The Lives of a Former Time Jumper by N. Joseph Glass 
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