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roadsides
the gum trees watch over us
as we drive through the Wimmera
embracing each other at their crowns
making space underneath for us to pass
now and again a foreigner
dark green and geometric
provoked in the gums an attitude
of hand-on-hip insouciance
among their own however
they compete to reach the sky
tall smooth and clean
like souls cleansed of sorrows
Bill Hannan 