Published in Overland Issue 256 Spring 2024 · Poetry Brink Kate Lilley I am a woman of the last century a connoisseur of cupboards and compartments answers reversed, a tangle for trembling ears secrets of imitation exposed a connoisseur of cupboards and compartments letters of courtship and expired unguents secrets of imitation exposed glottal chink, botched frontispiece letters of courtship and expired unguents rima vestibuli, unversed speech glottal chink, botched frontispiece grosgrain ribbon stretched taut rima vestibuli, unversed speech a dewy bower open and shut grosgrain ribbon stretched taut the part when writing intercedes a dewy bower open and shut consent as extralegal the part when writing intercedes confessio amantis unto Venus and Cupid consent as extralegal answers reversed, a tangle for trembling ears confessio amantis unto Venus and Cupid I am a woman of the last century Kate Lilley Kate Lilley is a queer poet-scholar. Her three books of poetry are Versary, Ladylike and, most recently, Tilt, winner of the Victorian Premier’s Award. Recent poems have appeared in Griffith Review, Australian Poetry Journal, Rabbit and Plumwood Mountain. She is the editor of Margaret Cavendish: The Blazing World and Other Writings (Penguin Classics) and Dorothy Hewett: Selected Poems (UWAP). More by Kate Lilley › 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 5 November 2025 · Poetry Force posture agreement Miroslav Sandev The men of Darwin have all taken their rottweilers / out for a walk at the same time. / For our protection. Like Pine Gap: / all those big white eyes that scan / the darkening horizon. / The eyes stay woke, so that we may sleep. / Or so they say. 1 22 August 202522 August 2025 · Poetry starmight K.A Ren Wyld Ending genocide and apartheid is the story. Palestinian liberation is the story. / Aboriginal rights is the story. Truth, justice, treaties and land back is the story. / Global Indigenous peoples’ solidarity and joy is the story. Kinship is the story.
