I’ve got a new poem – The ASX pours from your chest – at Overland, and there’s another to be included in their next print issue. I’m trying to pretend it’s not a big deal to me, but the truth is I’ve been sending Overland poems and short stories since I was about 19.
It was so long ago that we dealt in hard copies, and their rejection slips, I got a lot of them, were mailed back. For years I carried a bundle of rejection slips from crappy share house to crappy share house, kinda believing that I’d keep collecting them until I started getting stuff accepted, kinda believing they’d keep me writing. so yeah, when the acceptance came through from Overland for this poem I was pretty excited – the journal has always been a big deal to me. I’m glad that picked up something that’s a bit angry.
Here’s the opening couple of stanzas…
The ASX pours from your chest
We squabble about the money skimmed
from our drudgery, the barbs lift
enemies from our skin. At the end of shifts
we are lathered in sweat and the day is night;
cars move above us and I have blood on my palms.
Your teeth are broken, we are old
we are the same, we have always been here
we are layers of dried paint. On our best days
we are birds, we are flocks of laughter
we are dawn.
To read the rest head to Overland and grab a subscription, they’re unreal.
Rico Craig 