Published in Overland Issue 250 Autumn 2023 · Teaser / Poetry Ribbons Cameron Lowe Little is known about workplace health promotion for bus drivers. That’s exactly how it started: a string of words shaping space into something resembling an idea. Of course, she said, there are always substitutes for the real thing. They worried at it, let it go, and in the rear view mirror there were the back slappers, as usual, jerking off over line breaks. You could say—as fact—dolphin were leaping through winter trees. You could say this is Australia, if you want it. Turning right, turning left, flicking radio stations, tapping out the hours. You could say here’s a thing left behind a long time ago, the child’s dream tilting in the sun. Stepping out, stepping in. If you listen long enough, they’ll whisper to you: here’s the key, kid; you’re sure to find that special thing you’ve desired all along. Cameron Lowe Cameron Lowe lives in Geelong. Circle Work, his second book-length collection of poetry, was published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2013. More by Cameron Lowe › 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 6 September 20246 September 2024 · Poetry Debts of the robots Corey Wakeling Repaying the debts of robots, / I see me in your screen fatally, which is / to say oozed certainty across a whistle of craft. 16 August 202416 August 2024 · Poetry pork lullaby Panda Wong but an alive pig / roots in the soil /turning it over / with its snout / softening the ground / is this a hymn