Published in Overland Issue 242 Autumn 2021 · Poetry after life Debbie Lim after the fact / they will position / our limbs heads and feet so they are pointing north-south / east-west / west-east as if to greet the dawn / or watch the setting sun / or shun forever the light / thrown from this world / as if we were wise ciphers / they will bury us / in rich cloths and masks place objects of great / or common worth / within or beyond the grasp of our lustless bone / -jangled hands / they will touch / the soft distal points of our bodies / tenderly or with coldness / perhaps they will seal in / some warmth a prayer or small song / before turning one last time to go / i don’t know / where we hope to travel / who we should meet there / far under the hill / all dressed up so fine in the dark / or naked with our skulls / broken or unbroken bellies emptied or full / child or old / but in any case blessed and cursed harder / than any moment / we might have remembered / when we still lived on this earth. Read the rest of Overland 242 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Debbie Lim Debbie Lim lives in Sydney. Her poems have appeared regularly in the Best Australian Poems series (Black Inc.) and various anthologies including Contemporary Asian Australian Poets (Puncher & Wattmann). Her chapbook is Beastly Eye (Vagabond Press). More by Debbie Lim › 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 3 November 20233 November 2023 · Poetry our neighbours poem Ender Başkan our neighbours face appears above the fence – hello. our neighbours have a chat with us. our neighbours learn our names. our neighbours become our friends. our neighbours landlord thinks the market is ripe. our neighbours are told to leave. our neighbours try to buy their house at an exorbitant price to keep their kids in the school zone. our neighbours are denied. First published in Overland Issue 228 25 October 202325 October 2023 · Poetry The inhabitants Elif Sezen I died today, among many others, my grandpa died too, and our neighbours, / my best friend, the one with braided hair yes, and our sweet sweet doctors, / our motherly nurses... We heard a blast, then a whoosh of some kind, / and all gone.
