Published in Overland Issue 232 Spring 2018 Uncategorized Peripheral drift Zenobia Frost Turns out you can still pash in a graveyard at 28, though by now my fear of spooks has faded into a more realistic fear of people. There’s a torch in my back pocket. Her hands smell of graveyard moss and bug repellent flush with riverside humidity; mosquitoes hunt us hot and damp on the edge. Figures scuttling in the dark. Later, the sceptic tour guide explains how we interpret threats in our peripheral vision: shapes in the rear-view could be anything, but they’re probably not the undead. Right now, we’re waiting for the tour to start, deciding whether holding hands is a thing. The night this country tallied its paper yesses, that’s what we were finally saying to each other. This week was the first time someone yelled a slur from a car since I was a teenager. ‘If only people would mistake me for a boy when it’s convenient,’ she said, not taking her hands off me then, or now, even when we hear a branch crack, or blink at torches fluorescing the trunks of gum trees. Read the rest of Overland 232 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Zenobia Frost Zenobia Frost is a poet from Brisbane whose latest collection, After the Demolition (Cordite Books), explores pop culture, queer joy, place attachment and belonging. She recently received a Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. More by Zenobia Frost 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 23 March 2023 Trans rights Why gender essentialism is a white supremacist ideology Maddison Stoff The idea that these neo-Nazis are just ‘cosplayers’, rather than the local version of an international and decades-long attempt by numerous lone wolves and paramilitary groups to seize control of multiple countries, is too dangerous to seriously contemplate. The better question might be: why do so many anti-trans rights activists, who often see themselves as left-wing or self-describe as feminists, tolerate or downplay the presence of Nazis in their circles? And, just as importantly, why do neo-Nazis show up to support them? First published in Overland Issue 228 22 March 2023 Cartoons Standing at Solidarity Park Sam Wallman In 1997, in response to anti-union legislation, 30,000 unionists marched on WA Parliament, and were ignored. On May Day, directly across the road from Parliament, aka ‘Bullshit Castle’, a site was pegged and legally claimed by unionists using the Mining Act. Remarkably, Solidarity Park is now Heritage Protected. The site is not just historic though, it’s alive. We ought to keep it overflowing with our movements.