Published in Overland Issue 222 Autumn 2016 · Uncategorized First place: alkaway Ella OKeefe a punchline flies business class towards vague archipelagos in the deepening Pacific I find glassy petrol spots the size of 5-cent pieces refracting intervals of the day thrushy embers in mornings overturn woken by shapeless violence your body returned from sleep’s legal trip quilling into the afternoon discovering ‘the therapeutic power of water’ while wasp-shaped helicopters spotlight the oval – but when? (in violet enamel when bees were discovered) after filtering the whole house cohabited refuse goes archaeological turncoat, Georgic pink bread bag (garment) elastic calendar as in day-shaped moments between yawns time-check: pearling three o’clock clicks to night without dusk floating floor live improv set in the big suburb replica village reality effect the bodice sits over the body know this well already, cf. ‘it mimics nature to filter’ old-sponge chunks of wattle slumping on your cheek gathering a full body testimonial The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation Ella OKeefe Ella O’keefe is a poet and researcher who lives in Melbourne. Her poems have appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Text Journal, Steamer and Best Australian Poems. Her chapbook Rhinestone was published by Stale Objects dePress in 2015. She has made radio pieces for national and community broadcasters and is Audio Producer for Cordite Poetry Review. More by Ella OKeefe › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 21 February 202521 February 2025 · The university Closing the noose: a dispatch from the front line of decasualisation Matthew Taft Across the board, universities have responded to legislation aimed at rectifying this already grim situation by halting casual hiring, cutting courses, expanding class sizes, and increasing the workloads of permanent staff. This is an unintended consequence of the legislation, yes, but given the nefarious history of the university, from systemic wage theft to bad-faith bargaining, hardly a surprising one. 19 February 2025 · Disability The devaluing of disability support Áine Kelly-Costello and Jonathan Craig Over the past couple of decades, disabled people in much of the Western world have often sought, or agreed to, more individualised funding schemes in order to gain greater “choice and control” over the support we receive. But the autonomy, dignity and flexibility we were promised seems constantly under threat or out of reach, largely because of the perception that allowing us such “luxuries” is too expensive.
