WinterWild Apollo Bay

we of the Otways
we’re on the edge here
the edge of a continent
we look out into a salty vastness
we look into the abyss
we look
we look
we don’t look away
we take it on
we face it down
we overcome

there are sights that make us gasp
the skies
the sunsets
the towering trees
the breaking waves

they can all be brought down
burned
blown
all destroyed
all brought to earth

we know disasters
ships wrecked
trees broken
and the fires there even if they’re not

but we know wonder
a whale breaching
the water falling
shoots of green

and come closer
beneath the leaves here
a mushroom budding there
in the stream
a fallen feather
wonder need not be vast