Published in Overland Issue 229 Summer 2017 · Uncategorized Clean surfaces Nicholas Powell In ‘learn’ mode, stepping back through equations, cut grass, considerable geraniums just to get to where the circles meet. Obeying the plates, the quick current’s rolling-pin deposits us far from the flag. The grump lugs it back from the swamp. A flashing display indicates that the limits of his mob device have been violated. The point at which you enter and we rub together our ‘big pictures’ exceeding his or her weekly goals remains fuel for the mouthful reporting from the scene, a populist sleuth. You’d like to know the slope, keep count of each clear memory and advance after re-entering the value; that’s the shrewd driver in you, counting the corroded days. Our formula: float on top of a weird award. Airing the room lifts a grey layer from an ashtray; immaterial under the curve of some of what you’ve seen from the store to which you’re assigned. Read the rest of Overland 229 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Nicholas Powell Nicholas Powell is an Australian poet and the author of Water Mirrors (UQP). His second collection, Trap Landscape, is forthcoming. He has lived in Finland since 2012. More by Nicholas Powell › 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 First published in Overland Issue 228 27 September 2023 · Sport When the sport circus comes on Country Jenny Fraser The next huckster in the carnival of sport is the upcoming 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games. If we want aspects of it to be in line with Aboriginal protocol, we need action from across the four winds of the world. If it’s not done right we need solidarity and protest just the same. We are each other’s safety net in this theatre of sport. As a senior Aboriginal woman activist once told me, ‘we are all only as good as we negotiate’. First published in Overland Issue 228 25 September 202326 September 2023 · The university Solidarity but only among managers, or the future of the university sector Hannah Forsyth The process continued during Covid. Jobs were being cut due to the threats posed by the pandemic, yet more scholars were being recruited. Nice people, good at their job. But why are we doing this, we kept asking. Management kept telling us we have a funding crisis (which often turned to a surplus in the end), so why are we also on a hiring spree? All along it looked like it could end badly, for all of us.
