Published in Overland Issue 220 Spring 2015 · Uncategorized Austerity Kate Lilley The person honourable, the crimes austere. In circumstances of woodland decay well suited to delinquency she got her youthful face for a song. Now she’s over it, fortune favours etc. Fortis non ferox. The mood’s hard driving and it’s dirty work. Paradiastole prevails, redescribing vices as virtues. Stoic, sceptic, epicurean: count the lessons and clean up as you go. Inculcate the sense of a person speaking to someone who cares. Kate Lilley Kate Lilley is a queer poet-scholar. Her three books of poetry are Versary, Ladylike and, most recently, Tilt, winner of the Victorian Premier’s Award. Recent poems have appeared in Griffith Review, Australian Poetry Journal, Rabbit and Plumwood Mountain. She is the editor of Margaret Cavendish: The Blazing World and Other Writings (Penguin Classics) and Dorothy Hewett: Selected Poems (UWAP). More by Kate Lilley › 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 13 June 2025 · Fiction Bardo Alex Goodfellow When I turn, the angle of my sitting gives a perfect view into the kitchen. I see a man, maybe the manager, slap that girl from the counter. She must have moved when I was not looking. Her earphones are thrown from her ears and freeze in their departure from her as I glance. When I look away, I consider that they may still be in the air. 11 June 202512 June 2025 · Art The case of the missing painting: art, power, and the politics of reviews Sarah Schmidt In Australia’s arts sector, two recent reviews have appeared to uphold integrity while quietly protecting the institutions themselves. They tell a revealing story about how federal cultural organisations are handling controversy, and why the public should care.
