Published in Overland Issue Print Issue 199 Winter 2010 · Writing / Main Posts Valley Gutter J K Murphy His rust-wrecked roof with a hole Big as a fist is replaced by Zincalum glittering down the valley, Image of a sundunked tarry road, Its skin a drum bearing The four-beat rap of tyres, The press of adrenalin. His guttering in turn speaks volumes: ‘Rare gouts of rain are made For piping down, And my attendant tiles Are buttresses against bunting wind. And I may gently mock The banging hail, for I sluice it Into a run-off. I am sternly-tested zinc. Therefore, Faith says, I’ll run with Whatever the sky might spill.’ J K Murphy J K Murphy is a Melbourne poet and author of Moving Along – Selected Verse (Puncher & Wattmann). More by J K Murphy › 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 28 March 20249 April 2024 · Main Posts Why we should value not only lived experience, but also lived expertise Sukhmani Khorana In the wake of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I want to extend the central idea of El Gibbs’s 2022 essay on 'lived expertise' and argue that in media accounts of racism, analytical expertise and lived experience ought to be valued together and even in the same body. 5 March 2024 · Main Posts Andrew Charlton’s school assignment Alex McKinnon Australia's Pivot to India exists for three reasons: so that when Andrew Charlton is interviewed on the radio or introduced on Q+A, his bio includes the phrase "he has written a book about Indian-Australian relations"; to fend off accusations that he is another Kristina Keneally engaging in electoral colonialism in western Sydney; and to help the Albanese government strengthen economic and military ties with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.