Published in Overland Issue 239 Winter 2020 · Poetry Hand as whale Josie/Jocelyn Suzanne Over a table-surface the lampreys of fingers subsisting on air and nothing. They erupt into sentience as all things fossils admit them as honorary sediment at the seabed and their hands pretend their bones/spermaceti belong to still more immense organs invisible with krill and size. That isn’t me, the hand-whale appears to say, it’s some selfless sprawling thing. Read the rest of Overland 239 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Josie/Jocelyn Suzanne Josie/Jocelyn Suzanne is a freelance editor/writer/programmer. Her work has appeared in Cordite, Southerly, Rabbit Journal and Overland, among others. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Val Vallis Award, and was the recipient of the 2021 Harri Jones Memorial Prize, as well as being one of the 2021 Ultimo Prize recipients. She was one of the recipients of the 2021 Next Chapter Fellowships. She is trans-femme/genderqueer, living on unceded Wurundjeri land in Naarm. More by Josie/Jocelyn Suzanne › 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 5 November 2025 · Poetry Force posture agreement Miroslav Sandev The men of Darwin have all taken their rottweilers / out for a walk at the same time. / For our protection. Like Pine Gap: / all those big white eyes that scan / the darkening horizon. / The eyes stay woke, so that we may sleep. / Or so they say. 1 22 August 202522 August 2025 · Poetry starmight K.A Ren Wyld Ending genocide and apartheid is the story. Palestinian liberation is the story. / Aboriginal rights is the story. Truth, justice, treaties and land back is the story. / Global Indigenous peoples’ solidarity and joy is the story. Kinship is the story.
