Published in Overland Issue 235 Winter 2019 · Uncategorized Walis tingting Ivy Alvarez take a coconut palm leaf pinnate in shape flat with a spine strip the green away and you’re left with a whip which at speed can cut skin for punishment gather the leaves then gather the spines bind with weaving through another thin thing for sweeping concrete sand and earth today it is my job to clear the threshold dirt mixed with sweat like worms in the fold of my elbow blacken under nails rime my neck I sweep and the broom says sh sh sh for ten minutes in a day I say nothing let my broom speak for me Filipino idiom meaning thin as a rod (literally, palm leaf broom) Image: Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash Read the rest of Overland 235 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Ivy Alvarez Ivy Alvarez’s collections include The Everyday English Dictionary (Paekakariki Press), Disturbance (Seren Books), and Mortal (Red Morning Press), with Diaspora, Vol. L forthcoming in 2019. Born in the Philippines, her work is widely published, anthologised and translated. She lives in New Zealand. More by Ivy Alvarez › 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.
