Published 8 March 20248 March 2024 · Poetry / Friday Poetry POETRY Gareth Morgan after Michael Farrell as if a poem were a person, me, i get up in the morning i buy coffee in a can, and wait you have to keep calm, “don’t get upset” or it fucks everything up. the bosses who tell me this are wise but stupid troopers. this is a political poem this is a work poem. poetry is my job i give you my best poetry worker impression i say: “you can invest in anything. i’ll deliver you anything if you choose it: everything.” that’s what a poem ought to see, love like a chestnut tree, like a seadog blooming at the top of the street. as if spring were still happening, as it feels to me to be happening the clouds glow across me. i play portishead and drink less coffee, i drink whiskey. these are chilling times but it’s another beautiful week in the spring of my heart what is our role in the sick economy? “as if a poem knew anything about that” i put cheese and crackers on the table, and wine from the local restaurants’ cellars. “you have to keep calm” and yet rigorous. as if a poem were a dealership to scour for what, a deal? as if a labour force were society’s heroic backbone, and this were a political poem not pasteurized. i love graffiti: names are magic and they live forever on the walls in my city and you get used to bludging, nudging things forward your rainbow drawings strewn into the remedios varo landscape’s jaws and creatures of habit can still go insane, can still do cocaine, and complain: life’s hard! we have bugs in our bones you’re feeling 4/10, despite things looking up i’m desiccated and financially ruined, but i have a job chugging along, as if a person, as if at a table on pink grass, my dew evaporating into the daylight Image: Alice Pasqual Gareth Morgan Gareth Morgan is the author of When A Punk Becomes A Spunk and Dear Eileen, and co-director of Sick Leave. More by Gareth Morgan › 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 16 February 202419 February 2024 · Poetry Two poems from 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem Nam Le But think about the children, super cute children, mute children, with uncommonly big eyes, children with hard eyes, eyes that have seen what no child’s eyes should see, children naked as the day wearing big smiles and no smiles, preternaturally wise, with mooned-out tummies and cleft palates and cataracts, deformities and birth defects ... First published in Overland Issue 228 18 December 202319 February 2024 · Poetry All the angels in the world are heading to Gaza Ali Cobby Eckermann All the angels in the world are heading to Gaza / They were alerted by the urgent increases on social media / Yes angels know every message posted on the world wide web / And all the angels in the world know genocide can be avoided / And all the angels are confused why the world is ignoring the fact Yes angels know every message posted on the world wide web And all the angels in the world know genocide can be avoided And all the angels are confused why the world is ignoring the fact - What can be avoided must not be allowed