Published in Overland Issue 236 Spring 2019 · Uncategorized Sick day Anders Villani Somewhere between spirit and appetite, a boy untangles teabag strings, lifts floor dust with wet hands. Redbacks observe him from the cornices, and boys. He’s feverish, by himself while his mother gets groceries. Sweat pearls the salt lamp in the den. Alabaster men grapple atop the piano—white- eyed, posed and white-lipped. He knows well not to do this. Not to walk to the church op shop, root for knives whose cheap handle rivets whirl on the tang. Whose slabs peel. Not to pull from the bargain bin a bag of pressed flowers, secret petals beneath the knife handles, seal them with superglue, a found tube. Not to be wasps in the grass or minigolf holes or hoses. Not to blindfold. Not to touch, not to tell, not to read, not to let the sun shudder him, squeal him like not a boy. His cinnamon sticks, his juice bottles. His yellow assembly place. His temperature, his park, his yabby pond, his voice in drowned bark missives, his bed -eaten ankles. Read the rest of Overland 236 If you liked this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Anders Villani Anders Villani holds an MFA from the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program, where he received the Delbanco Prize for poetry. His first book, Aril Wire, was released in 2018 by Five Islands Press. He lives in Melbourne. www.andersvillani.com More by Anders Villani › 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.
