Published in Overland Issue · Uncategorized Dream kitchen Eileen Chong I saw my ancestor making omelettes // from leftover bits of shadow. ‘Year’s End’, Chen Chen In my dream, I was sitting in my usual seat at the round table in my grandmother’s kitchen. Next to it, in the living room, a heavy wooden bench where the sofa should have been, intricately carved with flowers, inlaid with bright mother-of-pearl: a partial repayment of a debt owed to my dead grandfather. Also accepted: sandalwood sculptures of eighteen luohan in glass cases, their faces detailed and grotesque in eternal speechlessness. The crags of the mountains where the immortals perched were wet with our tears. We learned not only of his death, but of our own fates: to become moths hurling our small bodies over and over at backlit doors which would never open for us. In my dream, my grandmother was serving me boiled dumplings in a rice bowl. I picked one up with chopsticks and bit it in half. It was filled with words; they oozed across blue-and-white porcelain. There were Chinese characters, and letters from the English alphabet. I coughed up glitter into a pink napkin; golden numerals spilled from the cloth onto the tiled floor. I asked for some tea. My grandmother reached into the wicker basket, and lifted out a grey rock with a spout and a handle. Little red fish swam in my cup, but when I raised it to my lips, they turned into yellow starfish that unfurled like suns. I knew it was only a dream, because I was in my bed, alone. I was far from her, and home. Read the rest of Overland 245 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive Eileen Chong Eileen Chong is an Australian poet. She is the author of eight books. Her next collection of poetry, A Thousand Crimson Blooms is forthcoming from UQP in April 2021. She lives and works on unceded Gadigal land of the Eora Nation. www.eileenchong.com.au More by Eileen Chong 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 1 June 20231 June 2023 · Politics Turning peaceful protesters into criminals—again Evan Smith So the Summary Offences (Obstruction of Public Places) Bill 2023 has been passed by South Australia’s Legislative Assembly and will become law. Fifteen hours of debate in the upper house, led by the Greens and SA Best, could not overturn the bill that was reportedly rushed through the lower house in just twenty-two minutes a fortnight ago. First published in Overland Issue 228 31 May 202331 May 2023 · Film In Memoriam: Kenneth Anger’s cinematic incantations Eloise Ross ‘Making a movie is casting a spell,’ said Kenneth Anger about his lifelong profession, his unique and spectacular talent, his very own dark magic. That certainly describes how I was lured into his realm. There was a time in my life where I would watch Anger’s seven-minute film Rabbit’s Moon basically on repeat, infatuated by its blue-tinted images of a sprightly harlequin dancing around a clearing and calling silently to the moon. It was poetry.