Published in Overland Issue 204 Spring 2011 · Main Posts The twin stacks Adam Formosa Dirty skirts bunch and glow – soaring out of streetlights & glide down Cringila Road. Those slow turns unfold, coiling to curl in the street, cresting gold. ‘Tonight’s Sambuca, with roast coffee, baklava and Mouleet!’ I run home from the bus, alone. The stacks boast & collect the day’s rust, balancing a corroded steelwork halo. Mouleet floats through six o’clock & I run past Cringila bowlo’ past rustling bin-bags and barking rottweilers taking flight over their rattling deadlocks. I step past a cousin, a real squealer, stop him & ask if he knows my name. Halos flare in height, whirlpooling down blaring brightly, blazing tarnished clouds into to syncopated dust: bursting back a pinwheel flame. It shrivels down into its copper-capped cigarette, & cinders in rust. He steps on its butt twists a foot & mouths our Maltese surname. Adam Formosa is a third year creative writing student at the University of Wollongong. He was recently published in the Best Australian Poetry 2010. © Adam Formosa Overland 204−spring 2011, p. 119 Like this piece? Subscribe! Adam Formosa Adam Formosa is a NSW South Coast-based poet, whose best work comes out while listening to Deadmau5. More by Adam Formosa › 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 First published in Overland Issue 228 8 September 202315 September 2023 · Main Posts Announcing the 2023 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize ($6500) Editorial Team Supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, and named after the late Neilma Gantner, this prize seeks excellent short fiction of up to 3000 words themed around the notion of ‘travel’; imaginative, creative and literary interpretations are strongly encouraged. This competition is open to all writers, nationally and internationally, at any stage of their writing career. First published in Overland Issue 228 8 September 202312 September 2023 · Main Posts Announcing the 2023 Judith Wright Poetry Prize ($9000) Editorial Team Established in 2007 and supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets seeks poetry by writers who have published no more than one collection of poems under their own name (that is writers who’ve had zero collections published, or one solo collection published). It remains one of the richest prizes for emerging poets, and is open to poets anywhere in the world. In 2023, the major prize is $6000, with a second prize of $2000 and a third prize of $1000. All three winners will be published in Overland.
