Published in Overland Issue 213 Summer 2013 · Uncategorized I didn’t know your eyes were blue Mark Mordue It’s possible to forget a lot of things in the fullness of time: My father’s eyes, the pale intensity of distance, how it all began. I’m sleeping badly now. Dirt on a coffin, a credit card, loneliness, Poetry streaming through my head, a disarranged message That never has an end, am I writing it or having seizures? We are all electric. I sense holes in my chest, panic in half hour moments, Sun and shadow, the motion of leaves outlined through a window And cast upon a kitchen floor adding up to something warm. I can’t stop hugging my children and brushing their hair with my fingertips, Saying things that don’t sound right to strangers, As if I have slipped out of myself and away, Leaving a fragmented self like those night poems of incoherence and sorrow And panic and love: death comes in spasms. Missing my father and being a father: I think this must be what tears are like for me. Blue electric tears from the mind’s eye falling over time forever. Mark Mordue Mark Mordue is a writer, journalist and editor working internationally. He is a co-winner of the 2014 Peter Blazey Fellowship, which recognises an outstanding manuscript in the fields of biography, autobiography or life writing. More by Mark Mordue › 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 15 September 2023 · Friday Features Activating the poetic spirit as friendship John Kinsella I’ve always had the aching feeling that—as a text to be shared among friends and maybe eventually ‘enemies’—the soul-body dialogue poem is a way of arguing towards spiritual certainty in the face of earthly corruption and doubt. First published in Overland Issue 228 14 September 202314 September 2023 · Indigenous rights The ballot box does not translate ideology Jeanine Leane The Voice referendum is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the younger demographic to shape the future of the nation. Future generations of younger Australians will have to live with the outcome of October 14 for quite some time. If the referendum is defeated, it mean a nation was given the opportunity to recognise its First People and refused it.