Published in Overland Issue 217 Summer 2014 · Uncategorized I wrote lines during a period of insanity, too Emily Stewart after Gig Ryan Flung them on the riverbed which flooded that week next. Not short of invectives, I cursed pebbles as flint, startling the public of Wagga Caravan Park like a goanna loosed under leaves. What rot, said some, and I did believe them – with the brute finality of a gum limb struck down for brooms. Good-bye seventh sister, with your holy plaintive wings. Good-bye this underdress of drenched silk Dear accomplice, I can’t stand this ratio. The timbre of lunatic meets. Let us choose a better mooring for slugging bottles next; let us be less regretful. When did time start angling in, so diagrammatic, so anodyne? I hunker with a slew of digressions, mostly physical, layabouts, greying husks, what-have-yous. This night of nights features one darling wedding then the next: a blouse and blooms revue, or instances awaiting a long car trip home where I’ll couch tomorrow’s ache as somehow edifying Emily Stewart Emily Stewart is a poet and freelance editor based in Sydney. More by Emily Stewart › 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 24 April 202624 April 2026 · Friday Poetry A slam dunk publication Michael Farrell Australians said, landed among manatees, did useful, / neatnesses, knitted, pleasingly. Spared liaisons, amassed, / mortal dangers, unforeseen, nor kids, prayed aloud. 1 23 April 202623 April 2026 · The media The importance of democratic frequencies: on the threatened closure of 2SER Daz Chandler 2SER operates not just as a broadcaster, but as an incubator of democratic culture, its alumni carrying forward practices shaped by collaboration, dissent and accountability to community.