Published 7 January 20108 January 2010 · Main Posts Reality Whore Manifesto Alec Patric by Steve Smart I am a reality whore I don’t need money Don’t you know that artists Eat air, breathe words The slash of paint on canvas The lull of a guitar the screech of a trumpet? Invoke the name —- —– to Locate other reality whores in your vicinity I’ll sell myself any day of the week For some small truth Truth in advertising? Truth in fiction Truth in the days you can’t tell If you’re dreaming or you’re Actually waiting for a tram The line becomes blurred It’s why we crave the visceral The nights too close to madness The unavoidable slap of next mornings Is a small price to pay to know you’re alive! We do not come in peace We come with lists of demands That can never be met We’ll find the hole in the sand You’ve buried your head in Wrench it out crying ‘Look! It’s all around don’t deny it Don’t deny this one small thing we have The knowledge that we exist That some things are solid Can be both touched and tasted’ We will fight for this knowledge To keep it safe from those Who would take it from us Take hallucinogens to prove that reality Not only exists but has many layers We will explore the possibilities As far as they stretch Want you to understand And may lose sleep if you don’t In reality we are no more or less Significant than any other speck of stardust The universe might swallow us whole without the slightest shudder we are not so important still we have been given the gift of reason the ability to search for truth and beauty created angels because we understood that we are not perfect ‘Each to their own’ the prophet said Each to the world they see around them We simply ask that you accept There is much more than what you’ve seen You said the Sun turned around the Earth and you were wrong we did not drop off the edge there was no edge to find, we continue to learn Alec Patric AS Patric is the award-winning author of The Rattler & other stories (Spineless Wonders, 2011), Las Vegas for Vegans (Transit Lounge, 2012) and Bruno Kramzer (Finlay Lloyd, 2013). More by Alec Patric › 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.