Published in Overland Issue 206 Autumn 2012 · Uncategorized nevada Mathew Abbott this is hell to be got out of unpitied strip unpeeling in the massive heat there is old order here the earth has spat it copper slats as green in rock as gold goes red the mind turns back to meet in veins the scale as the landscape tunes it up we were heated in the system then got stuck accounting the surprise of it so constant it became inhabitable Mathew Abbott Mathew Abbott lives in Queanbeyan with his wife Emilie and his dog Champion Ruby. Australian Poetry will publish his first collection, wild inaudible, in April. He maintains a blog at beetleinabox.tumblr.com, and plays in Life and Limb, a punk band named after a Fugazi song. More by Mathew Abbott › 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 1 6 November 2026 · Friday Fiction Headland Harry Goddard He must have still been sore. I could tell from the winces he made as he scooted down the trail. Some unspoken agreement of not hitting other people’s children — and the circumstances of me not being that type of kid — spared me from the same punishment. I was taken to my parents who agreed I would have to work off the damages, and I must have mowed the lawn once, or cleaned the family car. 4 November 2026 · Film MIFF, Minotaur and the politics of maternal reception Alicia Byrnes Maternal labour is, in the terms I’ve set out here, not labour at all. Noisy, unfocused, mobile, perhaps even sleepy — it is an affront to arthouse film viewing and therefore unserious.