Published in Overland Issue 233 Summer 2018 · Uncategorized Office wear made me trans Harry Reid after melinda bufton does melinda bufton think this much about collared shirts? probably not. i imagine her at my new desk wearing a striped dress, matching earrings – she sends emails like culottes very fashionably, regardless of climate. i cross my legs maybe hitch up my pants, it’s almost beautiful but only before lunch. aspirationally, pinafores feature heavily – more immediately, a white blouse worn with high-cut black denim ‘like the horses album cover meets that clip of japan on top of the pops’ but the girl in myer doesn’t get it and hands me a gingham shirt she assures me is ‘fun’. cool, i’m out. Image: Magnus Franklin / 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 Harry Reid Harry Reid is a poet based in Melbourne. They are a co-director of Sick Leave, and the author of the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend (Puncher & Wattmann, 2021). More by Harry Reid › 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 18 December 202418 December 2024 · Nakata Brophy Prize Dawning in the rivulet of my father’s mourning Yasmin Smith My father floats words down Toonooba each morning. They arrive to me by noon. / Nothing diminishes in his unfolding, not even the currents in midwinter June. / He narrates the sky prehistorically like a cadence cutting him into deluge. 16 December 202416 December 2024 · Palestine Learning to see in the dark Alison Martin Images can represent a splice of reality from the other side of the world, mirror truths about ourselves and our collective humanity we can hardly bear to face. But we can also use them to recognise the patterns of dehumanisation that have manifested throughout history, and prevent their awful conclusions in the present. To rewrite in real time our most shameful histories before they are re-made on the world stage and in our social media feeds.
