Published in Overland Issue 230 Autumn 2018 · Uncategorized Lights of home Chris Brown Woke up stockinged blindfolded disarranged over Ashgabat – 2 ½ romances surely about lands us at the crawling border – Dulled unfaithful apples threatening the plague as you pay – There were spectacular grounds for mistaking it for home – Bold signs that read like mama and café like taxi and home – Like all the pictures and promises the exotic couldn’t keep – The camirror in the cam-era fronting the same procession – Except the pressures of capitalism were even greater here Like the famed sun much in one’s face and seemed to be Cursing then even stalking if soon ever after loving us – For who in the single diminishing instant we had become – Then the northern spring in bubble jackets our worlds – Comparable commensurable separable teased apart in Levels of address some time later in the fricative trill in Frescoes of the eucharist or prayer lost language in the Grammatical foundations and if we’re nurtured in a tri Angulated hearing on marbleveined stairs we bring that Piece of home with us that was waiting and cling to it Read the rest of Overland 230 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Chris Brown lives in Newcastle where he works as a teacher. bulky news press published his chapbook, slender Volume, in 2017. More by Chris Brown › 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 13 April 2026 · Disability The proletarianisation of disability support work: workers’ perspectives on the NDIS Nick Crowley Support workers, rather than creating objects, create a caring relationship. The scrupulous observance of organisational policies and ‘best practice’ codes is not sufficient to create such a relationship. This can only be created when workers take the time to understand their clients and build trusting, authentic, equal relationships with them. 10 April 202610 April 2026 · open letter Open letter: RMIT staff and students oppose disciplinary action against Gemma Seymour over video opposing links to weapons ties RMIT University Staff and Students Freedom of speech and expression is absolutely vital in academic institutions. Students who engage in activism should not be punished for doing so, and discipline procedures are not there to be abused as a tool of intimidation. We call for the disciplinary process against Gemma to cease immediately.