Published in Overland Issue 238 Autumn 2020 · Poetry / Judith Wright Poetry Prize / Judges' report No language for white man Lou Garcia-Dolnik The young sit eir fresia in bottom yard where it bloom best. Feline in mangifera where e move best. So much living in pastime, riverbank where kindred set it down best. That no language for white man. Sitting coat up on stick for scare way bird-pulse not for white man. Holy city rice terrace stretch green into no white land. Hanglow breadfruit beckon for tell e truth to my problem. All country say solution to my problem. Living in it rhythm, burn fruit of coconut tree for brown hand. But that no language for white man. Sand stretch sensory above eyefrontier. Tinikling tap history on coconut floorboard. Visayas break bread with xeir departures. All that, Country, sing no language of white man. Country, tell with durian tree what your problem. Country point with thick lip to beachbank for my problem. Kid sing loud leron sinta for my problem. All country, say your solution for my problem. Tita with pearl earring fasten to rubberskin for my problem. Lolo listen softly to bandila for my problem. Lola make pansit with calamansi, all lemon and kikkoman for my problem. No whiteword salt enough for my problem. No white language pumice enough for my problem. No white language poorandbrown enough for my problem. No white language brown for country enough. No country blacknbrown without white enough. No country have language for white man enough. No country for white man ever enough. Read the rest of Overland 238 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Lou Garcia-Dolnik Lou Garcia-Dolnik is a mixed-race Filipinx writer and editor working on unceded Gadigal land. A poetry editor for Voiceworks and alumnus of the Banff Centre’s Emerging Writers Intensive, they have been awarded third place in PRISM International’s Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize and second place in Overland’s Judith Wright Poetry Prize. They have work published in or forthcoming with Overland, PRISM International, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Scum Mag and Voiceworks, among others. More by Lou Garcia-Dolnik › 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 8 March 20248 March 2024 · Poetry POETRY Gareth Morgan as if a poem were a person, me, i get up in the morning / i buy coffee in a can, and wait / you have to keep calm, “don't get upset” / or it fucks everything up. the bosses who tell me this / are wise but stupid troopers. this is a political poem First published in Overland Issue 228 16 February 202419 February 2024 · Poetry Two poems from 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem Nam Le But think about the children, super cute children, mute children, with uncommonly big eyes, children with hard eyes, eyes that have seen what no child’s eyes should see, children naked as the day wearing big smiles and no smiles, preternaturally wise, with mooned-out tummies and cleft palates and cataracts, deformities and birth defects ...