Published in Overland Issue 220 Spring 2015 · Uncategorized The bush and the internet are interchangeable Michael Farrell A wife looks at her husband; a treefrog at a modem. They view the bush from a comfortable position: enjoy wifi by the campfire like a Manet. Five years later the scene becomes unrecognisable. (May flocks of mosquitoes and other blessings … But that’s no subject.) Suddenly, after pages of sympathy, to see a yam like an idealised bull pizzle. (Pizzle a word not often mentioned on the internet.) The paddock’s dry, the river flows into the spare living room. There are videos of thousands of birds avoiding each other. Why? Yet, a poem should not resemble flora chatting at a party. Sometimes it’s hard to know where Australia is. Am I that snakeskin? Or the wind that tweets of conformity? I’m searching for your ghost name in quote marks your picture, your catchphrase, the trace of your body lures me on, we are heading further away from the town, the road is narrow, winding, leaf litter everywhere. I’m clicking on life guards but the air con’s unresponsive. I know there’s salt in the creek: a pink cockatoo’s spitting popcorn at the window. Should fences keep vagabonds out or in? Beware a flash cattle grid: cluey trolls will tuck up their swags and roll right over it Michael Farrell Originally from Bombala, NSW, Michael Farrell is a Melbourne-based poet, with a collage practice which can be seen on instagram @limechax. Googlecholia is out now from Giramondo. More by Michael Farrell › 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 22 November 202422 November 2024 · Fiction A map of underneath Madeleine Rebbechi They had been tangled together like kelp from the age of fourteen: sunburned, electric Meg and her sidekick Ruth the dreamer, up to all manner of sinister things. So said their parents; so their teachers reported when the two girls were found down at the estuary during a school excursion, whispering to something scaly wriggling in the reeds. 21 November 202421 November 2024 · Fiction Whack-a-mole Sheila Ngọc Phạm We sit in silence a few more moments as there is no need to talk further; it is the right place to end. There is more I want to know but we had revisited enough of the horror for one day. As I stood up to thank Bác Dzũng for sharing his story, I wished I could tell him how I finally understood that Father’s prophecy would never be fulfilled.