Spotted Gum

by Izzy Roberts-Orr 

If you spend enough time with the trees
you begin to feel endless.

There are some here I'd wager
almost three times your lifetime
triple your wingspan
more than ten times your height.

Your handspan – a trick of the eye – 
the same branches bolstering sky.

The trees bow and remember.
They'll fall, humbled by termites
hiding homes for the busy lives
of spitting possums and the
parenthetical bodies of galahs.

The trees know they'll fall
but continue standing all the same
through downpour and drought
blazing heat and smokestacked,
encroaching flame.

Izzy Roberts-Orr is a poet, writer, broadcaster and arts worker based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Izzy is Creative Producer for Red Room Poetry and a 2020-2022 recipient of the Australia Council Marten Bequest Scholarship for Poetry. Her debut collection, Raw Salt (Vagabond, 2024) was the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, and longlisted for the Colorado Prize for Poetry.