23 October 202025 November 2020 Poetry Poetry | (lingering) Pam Brown don’t want to w a l k any where any more lingering orientalism delivered to your door — guy does the guy collected guy’s collective events gaga does the gaga & yes when i think about it echolalia’s not that medical — antigen desserts lined up leaning across the oblong bar it’s me & the irish guy pat & habib the algerian guy (deux mecs et moi) at the zinc counter we’re dreaming a drink we’re lingering à denfert rocherau this page intentionally left bank never jetting up again — the blanket fringe walks across my cheek like a spider — what’s ‘arvo’ for morning? — bare hands smooth a plane tree trunk shaving under the cambian layer scrape sift more dust — no pension person wondering what’s next spockalock investor searches is my airbag safe dot com insurance advice blame a fog — travel’s out bottling’s out touching’s out cloud i cloud cloud it’s nothing to you on your security bubble cloud to wherever (get offa ma) don’t lose sleep don’t lose focus not now & you did — history asks could things get any worse could history get any worse could worse get any worse like wittgenstein whacking the slow kids at the village school any worse? (surely not) boxed their ears & one child died wittgenstein fled to vienna — reading this sorry tale while lingering almost reclining on a curvy bench in the pocket park a favourite outdoor wedding location fragments silver bits white tat ashy peach chintz flake rubbish left behind — what was a glory box supposed to be? viennese lace curlicue gilt curlicue froufrou inlay an oakwood trunk full of folderol kept for a girl for marriage not dowry – glory a trousseau linen tea towels embroidered tablecloths & denouemental enslavement to slow cookers & white goods — (i know – ‘denouemental’ i know i made it up) — lingering between fridges in the electrical store that boasts ‘you can shop with confidence’ — receiving the latest pronoun & noun instructions to use ‘folks’ instead of ‘guys’ sounds like advice from nambour the folks leaning across the oblong bar two folks les deux mecs & me at the zinc counter lingering over drinks à denfert rocherau that’s the bar directly above the catacombs if you need some poncy atmosphere Pam Brown Pam Brown has published many chapbooks, pamphlets and full collections of poetry, most recently Stasis Shuffle (Hunter Publishers, 2021). She lives in a south Sydney suburb on reclaimed swampland on Gadigal Country. More by Pam Brown 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 First published in Overland Issue 228 31 March 2023 Poetry Poetry | Dog walking in the desert Leni Shilton Mparntwe | Alice Springs claypans Each time you walk take a bag for the rubbish, for the weeds. Stride out then confuse the dog as you stop over and over, like you are picking at treasure. You dig with the heel of your boot at the sea of three-corner-jack prickles and remind yourself next time to bring gloves. First published in Overland Issue 228 3 March 20233 March 2023 Poetry Poetry | 2 rat poems by joanne burns joanne burns the courtyard rat squatting on an empire of pizza boxes rainsoaked piles of stewing cardboard flattened packaging from long covid's eager merchandise anything to transcend an unimagined plague rat traps line the walls like doctors' obsolete portmanteaux from a much earlier decade
