Published in Overland Issue 222 Autumn 2016 · Uncategorized First place: alkaway Ella OKeefe a punchline flies business class towards vague archipelagos in the deepening Pacific I find glassy petrol spots the size of 5-cent pieces refracting intervals of the day thrushy embers in mornings overturn woken by shapeless violence your body returned from sleep’s legal trip quilling into the afternoon discovering ‘the therapeutic power of water’ while wasp-shaped helicopters spotlight the oval – but when? (in violet enamel when bees were discovered) after filtering the whole house cohabited refuse goes archaeological turncoat, Georgic pink bread bag (garment) elastic calendar as in day-shaped moments between yawns time-check: pearling three o’clock clicks to night without dusk floating floor live improv set in the big suburb replica village reality effect the bodice sits over the body know this well already, cf. ‘it mimics nature to filter’ old-sponge chunks of wattle slumping on your cheek gathering a full body testimonial The Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation Ella OKeefe Ella O’keefe is a poet and researcher who lives in Melbourne. Her poems have appeared in Cordite Poetry Review, Text Journal, Steamer and Best Australian Poems. Her chapbook Rhinestone was published by Stale Objects dePress in 2015. She has made radio pieces for national and community broadcasters and is Audio Producer for Cordite Poetry Review. More by Ella OKeefe › 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 10 June 2026 · Rural Australia Left in place: how distance in Australia is political Emma Goldrick If we are to better understand inequality within Australia, we must begin with the recognition that disadvantage does not only reside in income brackets or postcodes associated with urban poverty. It is also embedded in the sheer physical scale of the nation and the political choices made about who gets connected to opportunity and who remains at the margins of it. 5 June 20265 June 2026 · Friday Fiction Hobo portraits: Treadly Tim & the falling star Patrick Holland We crossed the half-buried railway line and the crazy man known as Treadly Tim turned a corner around the van park on Simeon Street and came toward us on his Malvern Star bicycle.
