Published in Overland Issue 239 Winter 2020 · Poetry cottontale joanne burns when i read at sappho’s last week my lower left jaw was packed with cotton wool to stop a broken tooth from tearing at my ulcerated tongue the poems were saved from humiliation but i felt like a criminal secreting contraband goods across the border it was a relief to replace the soggy wad with stuffed olives and other assorted soft and salty tapas when i exited the microphone’s topography the time before at sappho’s i had read as one of ern malley’s cousins: sylvia or ethelred or both – next time i might read as the cumaean sibyl pulling rabbits out of a flarfable hat, and waving to jann harry winking above the palms like a cabaret star ~ Read the rest of Overland 239 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year joanne burns joanne burns is a Sydney poet. She is currently assembling a new manuscript of recent works: rummage. More by joanne burns › 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 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 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 ...
