Published in Overland Issue 224 Spring 2016 · Uncategorized Impulse Zoe Barnard I wanted to know, in a pause between sentences, whether the fine, transparent step between nail and skin was designed to be removed. Smoothly, the cuticle tears away, like a loose thread and blood wells after a moment, flesh overcoming the shock of being asked to undress. I wanted to know, walking home from the station, if the joints would so easily bruise and swell when my knuckles pressed against another’s body. If muscle and bone resemble walls and fences, then the pain flares and yellow meets purple in an expanding: yes. I wanted to know, when I could first drive on my own, how it would feel to journey into a power pole or through the railing along the coast. At the empty intersection, in the middle of summer, when the road is melting and sea salt cracks in the air I tell that voice, not yet. Zoe Barnard Zoë Barnard is a freelance editor and writer, who lives and works in Perth. More by Zoe Barnard › 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 15 May 2026 · Friday Fiction The structure Dominic Carew We made it to the park by eight. The winter sun was filtering through the far trees in a wan, lemon trickle, the thin clouds sheets of white. The cool sky a rubbed-at blue. The grass squelched beneath our feet and elsewhere, thinned from wear, the earth stretched grassless and muddy and, in some parts, released a thick mist. 8 May 202611 May 2026 · Nakata Brophy Prize The 2026 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers (Poetry) Editorial Team Please follow this link to enter the prize. Sponsored by Trinity College at the University of Melbourne and supporters, the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, established in 2014 […]
