Published in Overland Issue 232 Spring 2018 · Uncategorized Ghosts Kate Middleton Oh / can’t you handle / a ghost? – Alice Notley I can’t think of a time she uses it. The word. Ghost. My difficulty. Believing this. There are ghosts everywhere in her words. She just uses other. Words. Toxins. Hormones. So we talk about the words she does use. About the way they sit within the body. And we talk about present. Talk time. Talk quantum something. Oh. I say. We should talk about the other meaning. You know. Gift. No-one thinks she meant that. Even me. Until I do. This meaning a shadow. As if a momentary feeling of wholeness weren’t constant. Ly shattered. I could offer a reading. Of the poem. Of the bone flute. Drawn from the body. But. But this is not. Possible. Instead. I unwrap the word. Present. Remind me. I say. Remind me what St Augustine said. Time as a hormone. Time as a toxin. Time infects. The body. Time turns the bone to flute. Gifts its hollowed body music. Marrowless. Shaded. for Emily Stewart Image: Mark Nye / flickr Read the rest of Overland 232 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Kate Middleton Kate Middleton is an Australian writer. She is the author of the collections Fire Season (Giramondo), awarded the Western Australian Premier’s Award for Poetry in 2009, Ephemeral Waters (Giramondo), shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s award in 2014, and Passage (Giramondo, 2017). From 2011–2012, she was the inaugural Sydney City Poet. More by Kate Middleton › 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 10 May 202410 May 2024 · Friday Poetry Disorientation John Kinsella A strong south-westerly cuts through the shutters and wakes me out of synch. Disorientated, I try to start a different story but have to secure the window. I am harried and haunted by the horrors of Du Pont. I cannot get away from them whispering at each node of modernity. Where will I arrive after this? 9 May 20249 May 2024 · Solidarity Seeds of solidarity in the ground: at the University of Sydney Gaza Solidarity Encampment Honi Soit editors Following university encampment protests dotting the US map, the Students for Palestine organisation worked with the University of Sydney’s Students’ Representative Council, Sydney University Muslim Students Association and the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network to kickstart a protest at Australian universities, calling for an end to ties to weapons manufacturers like Thales and Raytheon, and educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.