David Ishaya Osu: WHAT WAS TOLD • Cleaver Magazine

David Ishaya Osu
WHAT WAS TOLD

was triangle &
the sayings of an
apple full

of iodine. what
was told before the
kiss. has a toad

swollen at
a word
of divorce? elegy

no cry again
for the coming
coming nights, no

no, no, quickly
quickly as a rain
rinsing a

dress made
from ash
—the second coming

of judas—how are
you, mr. xylophone? have
you got some

new mallets
for this old
b

old
body?

David Ishaya Osu, born in 1991,born in 1991 in Nigeria, is a board member of the Babishai Niew Poetry Foundation based in Uganda. His poetry appears in Chiron Review, The Lampeter Review, CutBank, Vinyl , Transition, The Nottingham Review, New Coin Poetry, Maintenant 10: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing & Art, among others. David is a fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency, and is currently the poetry editor at Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel.