Published in Overland Issue 230 Autumn 2018 · Uncategorized Guarded by birds | Judith Wright Poetry Prize, first place Evelyn Araluen When you go as the spaces between wine&zoloft say you must at thirtyseven or some other too soon before old has a chance to grow in you before youth has time to loose you from his claws I will meet you at the edges of a body shaped like loss and trace the outline of your absence with smoke then take from the air the name of a man who smelt like river and spoke like distance Second surviving son to two generations of fathers to buried boys loved&beloved in your loudest lonely by the daughter to what I swear I heard you call deliverance too goodtoo good this eloquent offering of birdcage to gulls There are knowings I cannot tell you and things you do not know how to say between tradition and trauma there are nights when we meet voiceless in the shadow of oncewas gum the memory of leaf and branch the place where you want to die I know little of this ceremony have only collected for the coolamon carved from river red to carry water to carry child to carry smoke to carry you to those who watch and hope there will be place for you When you go I will be the one to tell the birds they will wait as I gather the eucalypt and tell me take them still living break the branch if you must Read the rest of Overland 230 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Evelyn Araluen Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Her Stella-prize winning poetry collection DROPBEAR was published by UQP in 2021. She lectures in Literature and Creative Writing at Deakin University. More by Evelyn Araluen › 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.
