Published in Overland Issue 233 Summer 2018 · Uncategorized Narrative arc Kathryn Hummel for Ana The distance between expanding curves is vexing. Consider what is lost across lines primed for transoceanic dispatch; in our acceptance of the mainstream map of this binarised earth. We can’t extend, can’t translate or erase the borders add or subtract entity from global process or the democratising caste of fibre optics. Migration, complete and pending, has our passage marked. Some narratives defy their introductions. We pastiche the prolificacy of Balzac, adding detail to the detriment of action, forgetting what we signify. Arcs occur, counter to the cut of extant prose we recount boldly, without depleting. From time to time, preconceptions emerge to define us but how little they contribute to our final shift; to our shadow. The weak see a future developed by category, sure to employ no more sound than thunder. But we’ll have damage to spend, uselessly and well, to stop the world inscribing: to gesture to those imperfectly alive. Image: Lines / flickr Read the rest of Overland 233 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Kathryn Hummel Dr Kathryn Hummel is a writer and researcher whose creative and scholarly works have been published/presented/translated/anthologised/awarded in various parts of the world. Currently, within Australia, she edits non-fiction and travel writing for Verity La. Kathryn’s fifth volume of poetry is forthcoming with Singapore’s Math Paper Press and her sixth and seventh with London’s Protex(s)t Books. More by Kathryn Hummel › 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 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 2 October 20233 October 2023 · Aboriginal Australia The use and abuse of History in the Voice referendum debate: an interview with Professor Gary Foley Gary Foley and Padraic Gibson I can see the failure of the referendum making a whole lot of Blackfellas sit up and think and realise again, what we realised back in ’67, that our best efforts to achieve our aims are always at our own behest, under our own control. A whole new generation of Black activists deciding hang on, to hell with the rest of them, let’s just focus on our own communities and start building up the strength of our own communities. 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 28 September 20233 October 2023 · Cartoons Ban cars from the city Sam Wallman Sam Wallman makes the case for closing the streets off one by one.