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i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: i cannot remember the dream.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: we who lived woke after the war.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: no one sleeps in a burning house.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: a child closes her eyes & her only country is her body.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: i mean to say i stayed up to live this long.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: we wanted just what every one else had.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: we thought the air was a country.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: we thought the trees were a country.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
i dreamed once. i dreamed once. i dreamed once.
this is the problem: we thought it was safe to surf light in water.
i did it once.
this is the problem:
every man will pay to death the price for his dream.

 

 

 

The last line is paraphrased from the song “Everything” by M.I Abaga



Anthony Okpunor is a Nigerian poet and artist. He was a finalist for the 2020 Palette Spotlight Poetry Award, and was longlisted for Palette Poetry’s 2020 Emerging Poet Prize. He was also a finalist in the poetry category of the 2021 Chestnut Review's Stubborn Writers Contest (the only Nigerian in that list), and is a semifinalist for the 2021 Adroit Journal Contest (poetry category). His works have appeared or are forthcoming on online platforms including The McNeese Review, Rattle, Palette Poetry, Frontier Poetry, and elsewhere.
Current Issue
7 Sep 2026

Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons will open to general fiction submissions on October 1, 2026, at 3 p.m. UTC! This window will remain open until we hit our submission cap of 1,000 stories. Our maximum word count for this window will be 5,000 words. We offer payment of 9¢/word USD. We do not read simultaneous or multiple submissions. Response time: Our goal is to respond to all submissions with either a hold notice or rejection within eight weeks. We hope to send acceptances or rejections within one month of hold notices. This is ambitious, and we might fall behind schedule. Please be patient
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In this episode of Critical Friends , the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, AJ Odasso and Electra Pritchett join Dan Hartland to talk about popular fiction.
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