Published in Overland Issue 227 Winter 2017 · Uncategorized River of crumbs Sumudu Samarawickrama They are eating the photographs Because there is no bread The photographs proliferate Your excavated back looks suspended we are looking down on you And you are caught on the crumbs of buildings we are standing on that which stood on you The space between the crumbled parts of which you are a part exists For your ashen powdered self is Dimensional and recognisable I lifted a city off your face My little ash-boy My little dust-puppet Of concrete grey and dusted edifices Your black eyes are curious Your toes are lifelike Your black eyes are liquid Your cheeks curve like apples Your black eyes are alive As we try not to see Image: Damascus / Игорь М Read the rest of Overland 227 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Sumudu Samarawickrama Sumudu Samarawickrama was born in Sri Lanka though she’s never lived there. She is an emerging writer currently part of Footscray Community Arts Centre’s West Writer’s Group. More by Sumudu Samarawickrama › 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 5 February 20255 February 2025 · Art A poetic argument for restitution: Isaac Julien at the MCA Sarah Schmidt Once Again... (Statues Never Die) invites viewers to engage deeply, rewarding those willing to invest time contemplating its layered narratives. Transformative in its complexity, seductive in its visual literacy, it offers a space for empathy, education, and debate, emphasising how museums can serve as platforms for confronting contested histories and inspiring social change. 4 February 20254 February 2025 · Indigenous Australia Teaching Palestine on stolen Indigenous lands Charlotte Mertens Refusal is not only possible, it generates different worlds. Refusal insists on the possibility of alternative anti-colonial futures and ways of being. Refusing the University’s erasure of Palestine involves a collective effort in thinking on how we will teach Palestine, the ongoing settler colonial violence and what this means for a place like Australia.
