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 30 January 202330 January 2023 History On class as a product of struggle Jared Davidson An understanding of class as a relationship and a process, and the expanded terrain of class struggle that comes with it, has the potential to unearth or reappraise key events and narratives in our colonial pasts. First published in Overland Issue 228 27 January 2023 Cartoons In attacking us, they bring us together Sam Wallman 'What these bosses don't understand is that in attacking us, they bring us together.' (Paddy Crumlin, Maritime Union of Australia, Svitzer Rally November 2022)