Published in Overland Issue 250 Autumn 2023 · Teaser / Poetry / Judith Wright Poetry Prize New terms for timeless behaviours Chris Brown Sea’s in a building phase. City wakes to the sun or crane in the mirror of its former employ- ment. Here’s some fresh stone blocking traffic from the park. We limber. Motorise resistance and ride out on a cryptic breeze. Morning TV’s:/p> hair-raising investiture. 8:04 weather charts. Office library- quiet. Hmmm. Emotional preferences for illegible feedback. Leave the mysteries the rabbit holes to Keats. A bell: catharsis yet! or can’t wait and expedite an afternoon. Thought along a trail. Day that’s been/to come though notes are no promises. So volatile. Shelve plans/scripts for a lounge and novel on politics— the generally bifocal exercise of reading. Loads of new term- inologies for time- less behaviours. Beneath the perfect lawns of land-held Parliament House Wanted senators decline invitation for the optics of their place in a crowd. The most familiar rooms are often called spaces and housebound fifteenpage poems are formidable acts of concentration. I draw mid-day blinds on two duplicate moons weeknights ‘rest my eyes’ (all attention) economising as any device. Somewhere in the soundtrack’s anonymous love brief revival then— scanning for detail in a high-speed credits scroll where episodic means continuous. Chris Brown lives in Newcastle where he works as a teacher. bulky news press published his chapbook, slender Volume, in 2017. More by Chris Brown › 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 November 20248 November 2024 · Poetry Announcing the final results of the 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers Editorial Team After careful consideration, judges Karen Wyld and Eugenia Flynn have selected first place and two runners-up to form the final results of this year’s Nakata Brophy Prize! 6 November 20246 November 2024 · Poetry TV Times Kate Lilley I try out for Can Can after school / knowing I’m not cut out for the high kicks / Ballads chansons show tunes ok / I can belt out Judy Garland and all the songs from Oliver / “Who Will Buy”/”As Long as He Needs Me” / Wher-e-e-e-ere is love