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The
Thread of Life
On the North Western Plain in
dust and shimmering Heat
Where wild cattle bellow and
lambs with mothers bleat.
Where the eerie mirage
beckons lost men to their doom.
And to
those who do not know naught but place of gloom.
To most who have once tasted
life on those vast wide spaces.
A mystic call come back; come
back! To were the emu
paces
With stately, tread, head
held erect and large shiny eye
Were the lonely turkey lives
and you hear the Brolga cry.
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We see him on the far
stretched plains dog trotting by his side
His horse may be an outlaw or
may be quiet to ride.
Perhaps his thoughts are
doleful or perhaps they are quite sad.
If dust and flies are
pestering and mosquitoes very bad
Perhaps his heart is singing
if the days sublime.
As we know it can be in that
nor-western clime
When the grass is waving
stock all fat and sleek
Water good and plentiful down
in the Grahwin creek.
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Seasons come and go some good
some bad some splendid
A sudden change to another
sphere, and that phase of life is ended.
A ceaseless lapping of waves
as they caress the coral shore.
Humidity making moisture ooze
from every pore
But with cool pith helmet and
clean, white, duck drill suit
The niggers do the work
whilst he regales himself on fruit.
Tropical growth on every hand
vines clinging to the trees
Stately palms with graceful
fronds waving in the brease.
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And this from hard baked clay
pans gidgee and tough boree.
To mushy tropic island surounded by the sea.
So step by step, by day the
thread of life he weaves
Some gay and joyful sometimes
he's sad and grieves.
We can trace his childish
footsteps in the mountain snow
Then in the glittering City when
youth was all aglow.
Young manhood in open spaces,
where silence raigns supreme.
To vast Pacific's coral isles
where life seems but a dream.
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But life is very earnest
where ever we may be.
And fate deals out awkard hands to play; to that; you'll all agree
Now may the wheel of fortune prosper and help the lad
And bring him back in safety
to his waiting mum and dad.
By
Walter Witts 15/7/1934
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