Published in Overland Issue 227 Winter 2017 · Uncategorized Collarbone Louise Swinn We’ll be living on top of each other in an outer suburb. It’ll be an evening backyard barbecue turned lounge party, old friends changing discs in the house we’ll never own. You won’t be in bed – staying up later than us now, as you do. When someone puts on ‘Yoshimi’, you’ll roll your eyes at the middle-aged Gen-X’ers dancing. Mum and I ’ll gravitate towards each other and you ’ll try not to watch us larking about, no longer two solid organisms. Later, with Mum’s head resting in that crook of my collarbone I didn’t know existed till she came along, and then you, I’ll wonder what percentage of everything I owe to the Flaming Lips. Image: Record / Andy Baxley Read the rest of Overland 227 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Louise Swinn Louise Swinn is a writer, editor, publisher and reviewer. Her work appears regularly in the Age, the Australian, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Louise was one of the founders of Sleepers Publishing, the Small Press Network, and the Stella Prize. More by Louise Swinn › 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 25 May 2026 · The university Behind Craven’s audit Jeff Sparrow In November 2025, when antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal announced that Emeritus Professor Greg Craven would head what she called the “University Report Card Project”, the media referred to her plan as an “audit” of higher education’s response to antisemitism. It was never anything of the kind. 22 May 2026 · Friday Poetry Judas goats Caitlin Maling Because goats can climb / and cave, clamber to find cover / in the bushes of what they can’t eat / which isn’t much.
