Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry until it was memory Jennifer Nguyen i am grieving for this wolf hole where her heart should be my cloak dyed red from her blood regret washes off my hand who holds her now that the hole has become a stone so heavy it sinks her ; eternal dream ; fever dream, where every single thing to eat is one step a head where every turn is a gun-toting grandma firing warning shots leaving passive-aggressive voicemails wondering whether i’ve found a good job a good man yet the wolf hunts because she is hungry cuts wood because she is cold pretended to be someone she is not because she is human this winter has been hard on every body i cannot forgive grandma but cannot fault her for killing friend (apparent foe) i, too, value my own life first i, too, strike before i am struck i, too, would prefer to eat before i am eaten this winter has been hard so we will boil her head and make soup grandma says we are wolves too we must be if we want to survive Read the rest of Overland 243 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Jennifer Nguyen Jennifer Nguyen is the author of poetry collection When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon (Subbed In, 2019). Jennifer’s work has been published in City of Literature Summer Series, Liminal ‘Interiors’, Scum Mag, Meanjin blog and more. Jennifer was previously a recipient of the Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship for poetry. In 2020 she was a Poet Laureate for the City of Literature Poet Laureates of Melbourne project. More by Jennifer Nguyen › 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 ...