OVERLAND MAGAZINE JUDITH WRIGHT POETRY PRIZE for NEW and EMERGING POETS

Overland is proud to announce the results of the Overland magazine Judith Wright Prize for New and Emerging Poets, 2007.

runner-up | ROBERTA LOWING

Crush Depth

They keep saying the war is over but it is not over.
It is always there: a vapour trail, the negative
of a positive, a familiar profile.

Every day, skeins of grey mist drift across the country,
mock our sunny skies, the carnival colours,
the banners saying the war is over

    but it is not over.

My friends do not understand the black outlines
I see around the crystal dinner set, the discordant violins
I hear in every symphony. But more and more I think there must be

some scarring of tissue, some cramping of the heart,
which allows us to contemplate our own largess
as though it were a moral reward, as though by saying enough times

    the war is over that it will be over.

We brandish our accumulations as proof we are good
men and women
not a freak confluence of minerals and timing

and minds shaped like a gun.
We ignore the shadows in robes, close behind,
obscured in the crowd.

    There comes a day
when droplets of grey water fall from blue skies.
As the light slips away, I pack my bags.

They keep saying the war is over
    but it is not over.
It is always with us, turning into us, the face of the crowd.

© Roberta Lowing

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