aussiepoet

Depression 1929 Australia

Category: /General/

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Away back in Australia hardest times where then
No work No money they grew their food found honey
They milked a cow baked the bread killed a sheep
Cooked on fuel stoves loved their custard runny

Some guys went walking to find work traveling
A lot stayed out their walking until they died
They Walked clean around Australia many times
Took life as it came jacks of all trades tried

Crossing paths often with others doing same
Swaggies they called them away back when
Was not a lot of odd jobs thet could'nt do
The hardest days were they away back then

Some food some clothes in a bag they carried
Maybe a dog to trot along behind them too
A make-shift tent or shelter over night rain
With only what they needed at any time true

Always closing gates on an out-back track
Having come this way maybe once a year
Property owners that knew then now and then
Might offer them at the time a coldest beer

They knew every longest mile of Australia
Would drop in to tell if a fence was broken
Rewarded often with a hot home cooked meal
Some food to take along hardly a word spoken

Maybe a jacket nobody wore a new pair of boots
Some fresh tobacco appreciated papers to roll
All in a tin to protect it some lasting awhile
A smokers pipe been in a draw since days old

Even at times an old rain coat just in case
Old tarp to shelter in upon a wettest night
Matches always handy to stash some place
For camp fire burning for billy tea bright

So many of them where out there walking
A job here and there to make a little doe
Chopping wood sharpen axes knives tools
Each one others all eventually did know

The wondering swag man they called him
And he knew almost everyone around
Walking along maybe humming an old song
And a mouth organ as well I'll be bound

terrence michael sutton
copyright 2018

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