Published in Overland Issue 223 Winter 2016 · Uncategorized Night pieces Leif Mahoney The swung torch scatters seeds The intemperate torch grazed In the umbelliferous dark With fire the umbel of the dark And a frog makes guttural comment The pond-lilies could not stifle On the naked and trespassing The green descant of frogs Nymph of the lake The symbols were evident We had not heeded the warning Though on park-gates That the iron birds creaked The iron birds looked disapproval As we swung the park-gates With rusty invidious beaks Their beaks glinted with dew Among the water lilies A splash – the silver nymph A splash – white foam in the dark Was a foam flake in the night And you lay sobbing then But though the careful winds Upon my trembling intuitive arm Visited our trembling flesh They carried no echo an Ern Malley compilation Read the rest of Overland 223 – If you liked this article, please subscribe or donate. Leif Mahoney Leif Mahoney is a former architect and art gallery director, who is an art language artist. His major project has been the abstract dada novel Nunawading. More by Leif Mahoney › 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 15 April 202615 April 2026 · Climate politics The $67 billion climate betrayal: how Australia’s record fossil fuel subsidies fund global destruction Noa Wynn The contradictions aren't failures of implementation. They're the predictable result of a political system that has decided fossil fuel profits matter more than climate stability, more than the Great Barrier Reef, more than Pacific Islander lives, and more than the future habitability of the planet. 13 April 2026 · Disability The proletarianisation of disability support work: workers’ perspectives on the NDIS Nick Crowley Support workers, rather than creating objects, create a caring relationship. The scrupulous observance of organisational policies and ‘best practice’ codes is not sufficient to create such a relationship. This can only be created when workers take the time to understand their clients and build trusting, authentic, equal relationships with them.
