Published in Overland Issue 256 Spring 2024 · Poetry incantations Lucy Norton (after June Jordan) they said they hated us and they wanted genocide to continue we said we love each other and we want freedom we said we love each other and deserve life, miraculous and average we said we love each other and want bodies upright in the streets we said we love each other and want land back in right relation we said we love each other and want flourishing olive trees and babies alike we want nobody crying for martyred family we want nobody choosing when the blanket of night comes we want nobody left crushed under imperial fantasy the weight, the weight, the weight of it we love you, we love you, we love you we want you, extensions of ourselves brothers, sisters, humans, humans alive and living and alive despite hundreds of perilous years holding us at bay, pitting us against one another we say we love each other endless like river and high tide is coming we say we love you so we do things that loving people do Lucy Norton Lucy Norton is a storyteller of Koori and Quechua heritage living on Gadigal land. Her creative works craft narratives of cultural resilience and the intricate relationship between lineage and relationality. They’re a recipient of the Varuna First Nations Fellowships 2023, Red Room Emerging Poet’s Residency 2024 and their work has been published by Red Room Poetry, kindling & sage, and Right Now Magazine. You can follow her work on Instagram at @lucydnorton. More by Lucy Norton › 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.
