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 poet, educator, and co-editor of Overland. Her Stella Prize winning book DROPBEAR was published by UQP in 2021. Born, raised, and writing in Dharug country, she is a Bundjalung descendant. She tweets at @evelynaraluen 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 First published in Overland Issue 228 6 February 20236 February 2023 Aboriginal Australia Winaga-li Gunimaa Gali: listen, hear, think, understand from our sacred Mother Earth and our Water Winaga-li Gunimaa Gali Collective To winaga-li, Gomeroi/Kamilaroi people must be able to access Gunimaa. They must be able to connect and re-connect. Over 160 years of colonisation has privileged intensive agriculture, grazing and heavily extractive water management regimes, enabled by imposed property regimes and governance systems. Gunimaa and Gali still experience the violent repercussions of these processes, including current climate changes which are exacerbating impacts, as droughts become longer, floods and heat extremes become more intense, and climatic zones shift, impacting on species’ viability and biodiversity. 2 First published in Overland Issue 228 3 February 20233 February 2023 Fiction Fiction | Romeo and Juliet II: Haunted rentals Georgia Symons The hauntings are actually quite flamboyant here, though. Yeah, come in, come in. Not like my friend Moya’s house—it just has a tool shed that sometimes isn’t there and that’s it. So boring. Yes, you can keep your shoes on.