Published in Overland Issue 223 Winter 2016 · Uncategorized Night pieces Leif Mahoney The swung torch scatters seeds The intemperate torch grazed In the umbelliferous dark With fire the umbel of the dark And a frog makes guttural comment The pond-lilies could not stifle On the naked and trespassing The green descant of frogs Nymph of the lake The symbols were evident We had not heeded the warning Though on park-gates That the iron birds creaked The iron birds looked disapproval As we swung the park-gates With rusty invidious beaks Their beaks glinted with dew Among the water lilies A splash – the silver nymph A splash – white foam in the dark Was a foam flake in the night And you lay sobbing then But though the careful winds Upon my trembling intuitive arm Visited our trembling flesh They carried no echo an Ern Malley compilation Read the rest of Overland 223 – If you liked this article, please subscribe or donate. Leif Mahoney Leif Mahoney is a former architect and art gallery director, who is an art language artist. His major project has been the abstract dada novel Nunawading. More by Leif Mahoney › 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 24 April 2024 · History Anzac Day and the half-remembered history of the Anzacs in Palestine Bill Abrahams and Lucy Honan Schools are deliberate targets for government-funded mystification about Australia’s role in wars. Such instances of official remembrance crowd out the realities of war, and the consequences of Australia’s role in imperialism. As teachers, we should strive to resist this, and we should introduce our students to a fuller understanding of the history of the Anzacs. 22 April 2024 · Gaming Game-death in infinite game-worlds: Darkest Dungeon 2 Josie/Jocelyn Suzanne Death is the ultimate stamp of value. It was invented to sell arcade-like 1 Up repetition to the home market. To read politics in videogames is to learn to read necropolitically, which is why gamers don’t like politics.