Published in Overland Issue 217 Summer 2014 · Uncategorized In Memoriam Hashem Shaabani Martin Kovan (Ahwazi Arab poet executed by the Iranian regime, 27 January 2014) We searched you in the hollows And we searched you in the fen We took you down for mercy And we took you down again We heard you’d gone a-roaming And taken up your pen We heard you used the Holy Name And took that Name in vain We saw you in the papers And we heard you in the den We knew you’d gone a-roaming By the treason of your pen We thought we’d show you mercy And let you live again We thought we’d offer clemency If you’d just put down the pen You raised it high against us Stabbed us dead and dead again With your prophecies of freedom That take the Holy Name in vain. We searched you in the hollows And we searched you in the fen We took you down for mercy And we took you down again We found you in the hollows And we found you in the fen And we took you down for mercy So you’ll never rise again. Martin Kovan Martin Kovan is an Australian writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His short and long-form essays, articles, fiction, poetry, and interviews, have been regularly published in Australia, and in the US, UK, France, Hong Kong, India, and Czech Republic. His philosophical monograph A Buddhist Theory of Killing: a philosophical exposition was published by Springer in 2022. More by Martin Kovan › 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 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 28 September 202328 September 2023 · Cartoons Ban cars from the city Sam Wallman Sam Wallman makes the case for closing the streets off one by one. 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 27 September 2023 · Sport When the sport circus comes on Country Jenny Fraser The next huckster in the carnival of sport is the upcoming 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games. If we want aspects of it to be in line with Aboriginal protocol, we need action from across the four winds of the world. If it’s not done right we need solidarity and protest just the same. We are each other’s safety net in this theatre of sport. As a senior Aboriginal woman activist once told me, ‘we are all only as good as we negotiate’.
