Published in Overland Issue 232 Spring 2018 · Uncategorized Dysphoria Ellen van Neerven liberate love into dust shifting, self-gearing love them all credit me do what makes you happy she says but doesn’t mean it in the way my mum says the desire to take clothes off to take them off but also take off another layer underneath peel away those expectations get closer to my truth I love my mind but I haven’t come to terms with this I catch you in an embrace with another part of me looking backwards into dust Image: Oranges / James Lee Read the rest of Overland 232 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Ellen van Neerven Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer, editor and educator of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage with strong ancestral ties to south east Queensland. 'Chermy' appears in van Neerven's newly released second poetry collection Throat (UQP, 2020). More by Ellen van Neerven › 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 30 April 2026 · Housing Organised abandonment and Victoria’s Big Housing Build Oli Caruana-Brown and Ella McNicol The crisis is not due to a physical shortage of properties. Rather, it is a series of intentional decisions by Governments to prioritise a system of private property over peoples’ basic human need for shelter, allowing landlords and corporations to continue to hoard housing and extract wealth from tenants via rent. 29 April 202629 April 2026 · literary culture “You are here”: a conversation about poetry and politics with Jeanine Leane Lyndall Thomas Jeanine won the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for her collection of poetry, gawimarra gathering. My conversation with her was recorded on Bunurong Country and in Naarm, in the east Kulin nations.
