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 April 202418 April 2024 · Education A Jellyfish government in NSW: public education’s privatisation-by-neglect Dan Hogan A private school that receives public money is not a private school: it is a fee-paying public school. The overfunding of private schools using public money is a symptom of a public service that has been rotted for a quarter of century by a political class with no vision beyond producing dubious, misleading statistics to deploy at the next election. 17 April 202417 April 2024 · Culture From the edge of the circle pit: growing up punk and girl in Indonesia Dina Indrasafitri Circa 1999, I sat on the floor in a poorly lit house on the outskirts of Jakarta, still in my grey-and-white high-school uniform. The members of the protest punk band Anti-Military were plotting their first album recording in the next room. Scattered around me were political pamphlets, zines and books touching on the subjects of anarchism, anti-work and anti-racism.