Published in Overland Issue 220 Spring 2015 · Uncategorized Invisible spears Ellen van Neerven A stadium can hold the most sound drowning out the bora ring mudding the lines we needed to know where we’re going now it’s a clusterfuck to get the train home flip up seats and overflowing beer the rude odour of tomato sauce and the black faces they never show on TV the team with the most blackfullas they don’t want to win the commentator’s curse the tiddling fear of invisible spears we can’t score goals on this sacred land celebrated as animals GI doing the goanna, yeah but not people with military intelligence you don’t want us protecting our land like the Maori – that means it was our land to protect we don’t need a haka of whitefullas just let us resist. Ellen van Neerven Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer, editor and educator of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage with strong ancestral ties to south east Queensland. 'Chermy' appears in van Neerven's newly released second poetry collection Throat (UQP, 2020). More by Ellen van Neerven › 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 18 March 2024 · France Emmanuel Macron and the rearming of French demography Stephen Pascoe Demography, that supposedly neutral science of human statistics, is only ever one step away from politics. Especially so in France, where the national discourse over the past two months has summoned historical memory and hinted at political futures in disturbing admixture. First published in Overland Issue 228 8 March 20248 March 2024 · Poetry POETRY Gareth Morgan as if a poem were a person, me, i get up in the morning / i buy coffee in a can, and wait / you have to keep calm, “don't get upset” / or it fucks everything up. the bosses who tell me this / are wise but stupid troopers. this is a political poem