poem | Mathew Abbott - Overland literary journal

a lens no-one
has looked through

            it is the hard
            disc of the system

shadows get more liquid
in its kind of lightness


      it is white
      knighting all
      the starfish


and it is unhumorous


the moon
is a ping pong
death star

            bright eye
            blind and arnica


sure of itself

it deadpans
what goes on

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Mathew Abbott

Mathew Abbott lives in Queanbeyan with his wife Emilie and his dog Champion Ruby. Australian Poetry will publish his first collection, wild inaudible, in April. He maintains a blog at beetleinabox.tumblr.com, and plays in Life and Limb, a punk band named after a Fugazi song.

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This article was published in Overland Issue

256 Spring 2024

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Overland 256 is the third issue in a suite of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. Inside its pages you'll find: Daniel Browning on the politics of memory, Antonia Pont on impatience, Sarah Wehbe on Palestinian fury and joy, and a special editorial by our departing poetry editor Toby Fitch. There's also new short fiction from Rowan MacDonald, Bethany Lalor and Amalia Stone, and new poetry from Josie Suzanne, Tim Loveday, Lulu Houdini and more.