Published in Overland Issue 244 Spring 2021 · Poetry Leafless - leafs Louise Crisp (East Gippsland foothill forest: Gunaikurnai country) Words are leafless In the forest some words are too loud Most words belong to someone else The sheen of words precludes listening Leafs wait to be heard Felled: the story between earth and sky Trees are determined as the rocks The middle story Is dialogue? Logging The tracks of words eviscerate echidnas Leafs align along a ridge Do all the words inculcate colonialism? Greater gliders cannot eat your words however leafy The colonisers’ word morphs into enforcement The route into the valley is not shown by words Forest: a word with many leafs Words that are seen, leafs that are not The track vanishes off the map but the route remains Leafs as necessary as touch The old forest… The creek is not leafless, words float on the surface Read the rest of Overland 244 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Louise Crisp Louise Crisp’s latest collection is Glide (Puncher & Wattmann 2021). A previous collection Yuiquimbiang (Cordite Books 2019) was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. ‘Leafless – Leafs’ was written as part of Stony Creek Collective, a multi-artform collaborative project in the foothill forests of East Gippsland (Gunaikurnai country) in 2020–21. This project was supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. More by Louise Crisp › 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 5 November 2025 · Poetry Force posture agreement Miroslav Sandev The men of Darwin have all taken their rottweilers / out for a walk at the same time. / For our protection. Like Pine Gap: / all those big white eyes that scan / the darkening horizon. / The eyes stay woke, so that we may sleep. / Or so they say. 1 22 August 202522 August 2025 · Poetry starmight K.A Ren Wyld Ending genocide and apartheid is the story. Palestinian liberation is the story. / Aboriginal rights is the story. Truth, justice, treaties and land back is the story. / Global Indigenous peoples’ solidarity and joy is the story. Kinship is the story.
