Overland literary journal

Progressive culture since 1954

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209 Summer 2012

Types

Jal Nicholl

supervene on the typical
nonsense from afar
asemic street and business signs

What’s the point
trying on a garment you know
is neither your size nor style? of telling
a story in which no-one will recognise
any of their selves?

Might as well form a ménage à trois
and share beautiful feelings
with the woman you love and the man she loves
in France in the 18th c.
and not say anything
for fear of the pain it might cause
the misunderstanding
          It isn’t
that she likes soldiers per se
or anyway not exclusively: just
that she grew up
in a military town, her father
a tough guy, a real alpha male
who was hardly ever around