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 nine books. We Speak of Flowers is forthcoming from UQP in 2025. Website: 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 19 April 2024 · Friday Fiction Stilted J.E “Mahal” Cuya One hour after midnight. Everyone in rooms. Living room – dark. Table look like monsters. Like death. TV on stand. Netflix Logo. No one watching. Residents asleep. They have dementia. 18 April 202418 April 2024 · Education A Jellyfish government in NSW: public education’s privatisation-by-neglect Dan Hogan A private school that receives public money is not a private school: it is a fee-paying public school. The overfunding of private schools using public money is a symptom of a public service that has been rotted for a quarter of century by a political class with no vision beyond producing dubious, misleading statistics to deploy at the next election.