Published in Overland Issue 201 Summer 2010 · Writing / Main Posts On the long road Hans Katakarinja This is a poem on the long road A trip to no where Step by step he drags his foot Wondering if he’s gonna hitch a ride This poem makes you feel tired and thirsty The man curses the water mirage Of an old fellah chanting the rain In the distance, on the horizon line This poem stops and lets you cut into it Straight black, white dotted lines fading Into the brown horizon, mixing into the sky Steam rises, sweat falls At anytime you wonder if he’s going to make it But he staggers with a limp into the middle At 200 kms an hour a wind just hits him Not a dragging foot sounds, not even a breath The poem ends with a long breaking sound Squeaking, whistling sound and comes to a halt. Acknowledgement: The opening words of each stanza are from ‘This is a poem’ by Catherine Bateson Hans Katakarinja Hans Katakarinja currently lives in Tennant Creek with his two daughters. He was born in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), about 130km south-west of Alice Springs, and speaks Western Arrarnta. ‘The Pain Rains’, was recently published in This country anytime anywhere, an anthology of new Indigenous writing from the Northern Territory. More by Hans Katakarinja › 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.
