Published in Overland Issue 201 Summer 2010 · Writing / Main Posts in the simple perfect Adrian Wiggins I’m twitchy as a debutante on a hot October joyride doing two hundred down the hill road onto the outskirts, headlights drilling at the future. I’d give you the stars, I’d pluck them down – here, you have them, they’re only stars, and in their abundance we marvel at them less, massive specks adrift in a debris field, caught, like a Coldstream Guard wandering out of a right royal scandal with no shirt, nor sidearm, nor pants, saying ‘I’d see you less if I could have you more.’ Adrian Wiggins Adrian Wiggins lives in Newtown, Sydney. In 2010 he founded www.sydneypoetry.com. Read more of his work at www.pureandapplied.net. More by Adrian Wiggins › 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.