Published 8 November 20099 December 2009 · Main Posts The story (a poem) Koraly Dimitriadis The story must come out, ripping like hurls of vomit / of an infectious plague that locks away crazy. It tears at a body that coughs up in resistance / green phlegm and acid / with seized up hands of sand. The story must come out / at the ‘You’re not going in there, Mummy’ / and the ‘one more cuddle, Mummy’ / You’re a shitty mummy, Mummy / where is your next child, Mummy / you should clean, Mummy / or work, Mummy / stop chasing dreams, Mummy. You – are – a – fucking – lousy – mummy, Mummy. The story will come out / against walls of fucking brick / of ‘no children at Rosebank – sorry that’s for dedicated writers to finish their manuscripts’ / and ‘your submission’s unsuccessful but please celebrate our writers’. The story will punch out / at the ‘I won’t read your work you didn’t read mine’ / at the snubby elite / while I drag heaviness through fields of mud. Why am I doing this again? Oh – right – the story’s got to come out. It shrills out in the night where wide eyeballs scribble notes / and voices not mine scream lost. Varuna deadlines loom / ‘Why aren’t you coming to my birthday?’ Where’s my sister, Koraly? My cousin, Koraly? My wife, Koraly? Is that Ella in Cyprus or me? Is that Ella in love or me? Is that Ella fighting with Harry or me? Is that Ella slashing her wrists or me? Koraly Dimitriadis Koraly is a widely published Cypriot-Australian writer and performer. She is the author of the controversial Love and F**k Poems. Koraly received an Australia Council ArtStart grant. She presents on 3CR radio and has a residency at Brunswick Street Bookstore. Her 2013 La Mama show is Exonerating The Body. She is mentored by Christos Tsiolkas. More by Koraly Dimitriadis › 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 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.