Published in Overland Issue 236 Spring 2019 Uncategorized An index of big things (Australia) Melody Paloma The picnic moves in laconic circles the roast chook, dry and masticated, forms a pillow. Children aggravate ants at this rug’s edges ignore The Lobster who, convinced she is not hollow, is asking to be tickled. You reach up, take a snap obscure the chin & flatter The Tuckerbox, direct yr gaze to Coffs (probably). I’m not sure where the whisper starts I am only sure that it moves from some obscured centre, stretches outwards in the form of a human wall that has legs and speaks, tells us: the first step is to remove the sandwich from the cheek discard familiar anecdotes and replace them with gesture high kicks and windmills encourage mosh pits / infect all rest stops. On yr way there (though destination is debatable) set fire to posters of Jindyworobaks, riot freely. Target The Eiffel Tower (not the actual tower) but the one offering Italian cuisine now locked in convo with The Koala or Ram I’m unsure when marsupials became so pastoral. Rip yr children from the eaves of watery Mushrooms, scold toddlers declaring a love of ministers and cash. Blithe facades grip dust as if cotton balls until gofundme cranks up the sausage sizzle (as if without them local economies would collapse into truth telling, as if a Trout could obscure genocide, as if a Golden Guitar could outwit Country) enter caravans and impound manuals: how 2 make yr desert cute, how 2 handle foie gras by campfire, how 2 elicit praise for 1080. Unhinge The Cockatoo, The Brolga, The Galah. Press couch dwellers for the difference between giant and big, pull off u-turns with grace, on exit discard the constitution remodelled as confetti the microphone returns, erodes assets and sentiment, draws a diagram in the dirt, conducts a lecture on the intersections of gravitas and agitation. You bow out, lock the door, head for The Prawn, The Stubbie, The Apple commit to demolition, then erect a plaque in gold. Read the rest of Overland 236 If you liked this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Melody Paloma Melody Paloma is a poet and researcher based in Naarm. She is a MFA candidate at UNSW and the author of Some Days (SOd, 2018) and In Some Ways Dingo (Rabbit, 2017). More by Melody Paloma 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 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 3 February 20233 February 2023 Fiction Fiction | Romeo and Juliet II: Haunted rentals Georgia Symons The hauntings are actually quite flamboyant here, though. Yeah, come in, come in. Not like my friend Moya’s house—it just has a tool shed that sometimes isn’t there and that’s it. So boring. Yes, you can keep your shoes on. 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 2 February 20233 February 2023 The university Deadly word games: universities and defining antisemitism Nick Riemer In a few weeks, Vice-Chancellors will be discussing a request by a group of federal politicians to endorse the latest weapon in Zionists’ longstanding bid to suppress criticism of Israeli apartheid on campus—the highly controversial definition of antisemitism produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Their decision will constitute a watershed moment for universities’ already somewhat threatened credibility as centres of independent analysis and truth-telling.