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remember: close
to the trail I find
a song wide enough
to cover my
body: we have a fire
going in the stove, she said
and plenty of wood
—keep the purple
days in a scrapbook, open
the sky the stars open
your song wide
enough to
cover your body: re
member

we will all be buried
in a garden, my sister said—& a butterfly
will travel with silence, from
rose to queens of the
night, from cup to
cry to a lake that
takes in red
leaves & day
light
—we all
meet in
our voices
behind the garden, she
wrote in the sky



David Ishaya Osu was born in Nigeria in 1991. His poetry has appeared in Poetry Wales, Transition, Vinyl, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, New Coin Poetry, and The Bombay Review, among others. He is a board member of Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, and he has received a Pushcart Prize nomination. David is currently the poetry editor of Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel, and is at work on his debut poetry book.
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
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