Published in Overland Issue 201 Summer 2010 · Writing / Main Posts Terminus Fiona Wright Little remains at track. Creepers, winding where the graded bed has grown so dank and soft it sponges at my toes. I sift the ballast, lift a stone, a sour-milk stem clings to its crevices, clasped in a veinery of roots. Sections of supporting walls remain at street level. The paint flakes scab under my fingers. The sun scrambles for the girders and gridlocked cars reverberate. Their drivers are silent. The blackened bricks leave crumbs on my clothes. Shortly before electrification. When I was young. I curled my fingers off my ticket-stub and caught the slipstream of the shunting carriages. I smelt soot in my hair for days, sour as fear. You never looked behind. Fiona Wright Fiona Wright’s new essay collection is The World Was Whole (Giramondo, 2018). Her first book of essays Small Acts of Disappearance won the 2016 Kibble Award and the Queensland Literary Award for nonfiction, and her poetry collections are Knuckled and Domestic Interior. More by Fiona Wright › 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 12 May 202512 May 2025 · Main Posts Somebody please just do it Sam Wallman Somebody please just do it 28 March 202528 March 2025 · Prizes Announcing the 2024 Judith Wright Poetry Prize shortlist Editorial team After careful consideration, the judges have selected eight outstanding poems to form this year’s Judith Wright Poetry Prize shortlist.