Published in Overland Issue 252 Spring 2023 · Poetry Self-portrait as fox with Arctic hare Damen O'Brien The worm of white on white, the whey and milk of white, the chalk on milk and the bone, break of bone, egg-wash and acrylic, ash, soft drifts of ash, hoarse coughs of ash, snow also, laid lightly on snow, piled on it, blindingly bright, blanched, bled and white static, brushed pallid, ivory as fluttered wings, alabaster as an empty bowl, wan drone as drowse in a muted horn, blank like a slogan, no, like a flag, clean, crisp, like cut timber, plain, spotless as sheets, as an accusation, as a cancellation. Can you see me? I said: can you see me? I am there, I am there, I am the killer in the centre of the picture, I am the tooth and the wound and the nail, white on the white on the white on the white. Damen O'Brien Damen O’Brien is a multi-award-winning poet based in Brisbane. Damen’s prizes include The Moth Poetry Prize, the Café Writers Poetry Competition, the Magma Judge’s Prize and the New Millennium Writings Award. His poems have been published in New Ohio Review, Arc Poetry Journal, Anthropocene, Aesthetica and many other journals. Damen’s first book of poetry is Animals With Human Voices. More by Damen O'Brien › 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 27 September 2024 · Poetry Because a wind blazes Dženana Vucic Because after autumn there are / other autumns, / we learn to eat the wind. / This is what we shall do / with all our anger. 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.