Published in Overland Issue 224 Spring 2016 · Uncategorized Solve a problem and it grows two heads Michael Farrell when I get what i want i worry go off bleeding into the Dusk lean my hungry Head against a taco Truck, nibble till i’m fit to bust on service Friendliness. independence is stark and hard-won, like a Sky blue Tiger that scares off mice but won’t touch Flies: and tigers are so unmusical, I think but don’t say turning Conversation into a stalemate which reminds Me i meant to get a crow to share the Load of bread my mother sent. my Dentist says i’ve naturally gold Teeth so i hide my smile when i’m down the Street in case of muggers You love me so much i daren’t risk the Love i might get from others when I was in rome i was jealous of Everyone in paris: it created an emotional Short-circuit, that followed Me around the world. it was like when I was an uphill champion and I felt so well i would take a pill and some Medicine to wash it down suddenly There were two hills and double the Competition and two Bottles of water making me twice as thirsty so I went twice as fast to get away from It all and found Myself in the desert sitting on cacti and talking to Camels like they were Poets and dreamers not thieves and Sorcerers or dope test informers suddenly a Bullet came out of the West and i saved my humpy Mate’s life with an improvised Vest: it fell off their chest into a Tin can i produced for the purpose now This was music but i’d never find a Producer in this apparently deservedly maligned Part of earth Michael Farrell Michael Farrell is from Bombala, NSW, and has lived in Melbourne since 1990. Michael’s previous books include: Googlecholia (poems), A Lyrebird (U.S. selected poems); The Victoria Principle (stories), Writing Australian Unsettlement (literary history), and Ashbery Mode (poetry anthology; as editor). Michael edits The Chalamet Review, and is also poetry editor of Westerly. 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 20 May 202620 May 2026 · Reviews Are you experienced? Louis Armand Pam Brown’s poetry has been described as both conversational and deeply layered, its historical consciousness seemingly belied by a fragmentary, diaristic style. An easy comparison might be drawn with the work of her long-time friend Ken Bolton, which often achieves a sense of over-arching unity of vision expressed in monologue form. Bolton’s work can appear exhaustive — long prose-like stanzas — where Brown’s seems to flicker down the page like dawn through the mangroves on the drive to Cronulla. 18 May 202618 May 2026 · Militarisation Sacrificed for the Pentagon: on Australia’s “security” crisis Gwenaël Velge The connection between the Jarrah Forest, the submarine base, and the data centres is not metaphorical. It is the three pillars of AUKUS, made material in a single city. Pillar III strips the forest to supply aluminium and gallium to the other two pillars, gutting environmental and water security.