/a sutherland

Subiaco Square

my body is
a testing site;
bombarded
losing mass and
hovering on
a line between
desire and
the mortuary.

testing sites
crave more and
more; open
yearning ribs
and missiles
no longer do
the trick your
drones do not
feel amorous
it’s all or nothing
Pyongyang DC
Beijing please
take me hard. 

my brain is
a decent job;
the workers lack
passion and there’s not
much opportunity
for growth but
it still accepts
the 457 expressions
of interest welcomed
from anywhere but here. 

my soul is
… ?? [there is no
available translation
for this text]  

my heart is
nothing metaphorical;
it is an organ that
works and I would
like to ask it how
it has the gall to
go on; do you not
feel ashamed, do you
not feel any shame? 

I told myself
that I was done;
a bit of fucking
chill, but as a whole
I am a wheel
and nothing stops
while I have hate
which on this wheel
is quite the same
as love.


Andrew Sutherland is a queer writer, theatre-maker, and poet working between Perth and Singapore. Theatre works include Unveiling: Gay Sex for Endtimes, Baby Girl, Chrysanthemum Gate, and Ragnarok. He was awarded Overland’s Fair Australia Poetry Prize 2017 for his work “East Perth [imagined nation]”.