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 First published in Overland Issue 228 1 June 20231 June 2023 · Politics Turning peaceful protesters into criminals—again Evan Smith So the Summary Offences (Obstruction of Public Places) Bill 2023 has been passed by South Australia’s Legislative Assembly and will become law. Fifteen hours of debate in the upper house, led by the Greens and SA Best, could not overturn the bill that was reportedly rushed through the lower house in just twenty-two minutes a fortnight ago. First published in Overland Issue 228 31 May 202331 May 2023 · Film In Memoriam: Kenneth Anger’s cinematic incantations Eloise Ross ‘Making a movie is casting a spell,’ said Kenneth Anger about his lifelong profession, his unique and spectacular talent, his very own dark magic. That certainly describes how I was lured into his realm. There was a time in my life where I would watch Anger’s seven-minute film Rabbit’s Moon basically on repeat, infatuated by its blue-tinted images of a sprightly harlequin dancing around a clearing and calling silently to the moon. It was poetry.