Published in Overland Issue 221 Summer 2015 · Uncategorized pages Derek Motion we’ll always be running in the hail local boys a-slouch like bus shelters let’s make a vow achieve a strained expression & watch the meeting collapse like a car in the bay hustler of this overland plane else the cold of my pie: vodka on an empty stomach to several boastful threats you know whatever shared contact detail suggests close attention the way you prod and caress the front seat gaze fixed pointedly the way you bite nibble show off a stance of ‘quizzical’ (taxi aggression mooted) a bent spine under candlelight & you’re my redgum rhinoceros: ‘hello’ then say nothing into a submissive hug stage-left we alter the red-shift afterwards to form a pleasing grin to bring culture to me failing that words: her right leg brought upward into an overpowering straddle the glint of dark blue after such a fall so pretty so sunrise … rope climbs the neck theatrics in the embarrassment of dance worse material in the bank i wonder lunch is an awkward token of thought we all get more photogenic in the wind & it was nothing boarding pass as bookmark as over-proof life Derek Motion Derek Motion lives in Narrandera where he writes and works as an Arts Development Officer. He was the winner of the 2009 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize; his first collection lollyology was published in 2012. More by Derek Motion › 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 25 November 202425 November 2024 · Reviews Poetic sustenance: a close reading of Ellen van Neerven’s “Finger Limes” Liliana Mansergh As a poem attuned to form, embodiment, sensory experience and memory, van Neerven’s “Finger Limes” presents an intricate meditation on poetic sustenance and survival. Its riddling currents exemplify how poetry is not sustained along a linear axis but unfolds in eddies and counter currents. 22 November 202422 November 2024 · Fiction A map of underneath Madeleine Rebbechi They had been tangled together like kelp from the age of fourteen: sunburned, electric Meg and her sidekick Ruth the dreamer, up to all manner of sinister things. So said their parents; so their teachers reported when the two girls were found down at the estuary during a school excursion, whispering to something scaly wriggling in the reeds.