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 19 June 2026 · Friday Poetry The strains of surrealism in sad realities John Kinsella Near the shooting range / alongside the deadpanned river / whited-out with salinity, / a triptych of three blue trees ... 17 June 2026 · The university Financial power in the public university: the case of ANU Beck Pearse The deeper problem is institutional. Universities have elaborate mechanisms for scrutinising knowledge claims circulating between staff and students. But we have remarkably weak mechanisms for scrutinising the financial assumptions through which executive power is exercised.
