Published in Overland Issue 235 Winter 2019 · Uncategorized Walis tingting Ivy Alvarez take a coconut palm leaf pinnate in shape flat with a spine strip the green away and you’re left with a whip which at speed can cut skin for punishment gather the leaves then gather the spines bind with weaving through another thin thing for sweeping concrete sand and earth today it is my job to clear the threshold dirt mixed with sweat like worms in the fold of my elbow blacken under nails rime my neck I sweep and the broom says sh sh sh for ten minutes in a day I say nothing let my broom speak for me Filipino idiom meaning thin as a rod (literally, palm leaf broom) Image: Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash Read the rest of Overland 235 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Ivy Alvarez Ivy Alvarez’s collections include The Everyday English Dictionary (Paekakariki Press), Disturbance (Seren Books), and Mortal (Red Morning Press), with Diaspora, Vol. L forthcoming in 2019. Born in the Philippines, her work is widely published, anthologised and translated. She lives in New Zealand. More by Ivy Alvarez › 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 3 March 20253 March 2025 · Cartoons RIP woke, methed-up Ned Kelly Sam Wallman and Reuben Winmar Upon visiting the State Library of Victoria on a warm December morning, Sam Wallman and Reuben Winmar speculate on what Ned Kelly might get up to if he was alive today. 27 February 202527 February 2025 · ecology Keeping it in the ground: pasts, presents and futures of Australian uranium Nicholas Herriot Uranium has come a long way from the “modern Midas mineral” of the 1950s. However, in an increasingly dangerous, militaristic and volatile world, it remains a lucrative and potentially lethal metal. And it is so important precisely because of its contested past and possible futures.
