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The Indian Myna

Gimme the town an' its clamour an' clutter;
I ain't very fond of the bush;
For my cobbers are coves of the gardens and gutter-
A tough metropolitan push.
I ain't never too keen on the countryfield life;
It's the hustle an' bustle for me an' me wife.

So I swagger an' strut an' I cuss an' I swagger;
I'm wise to the city's hard way.
A bit of a bloke an' a bit of a bragger;
I've always got plenty to say.
Learned thro' knockin' about since my people came out
From the land at the back of Bombay.

When out in the bush I am never a ranger;
There never ain't nothin' to see.
Besides, them bush birds got no time for a stranger;
So town an' the traffic for me.
I sleep in the gardens an' loaf in the street,
An' sling off all day at the fellers I meet.

An' I swagger an' scold an' strut an' I swagger,
An' pick up me fun where I can,
Or tell off me wife, who's a bit of a nagger,
Or scrap with the sparrers for scran.
A bonzer at bluffin', I give you my word,
For, between you an' me, I'm a pretty tough bird.

poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ""walking.""

quote by George W. Bush
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Toughest Street In Town

Outside the window the neon flashes
In the morning light
Down on the sidewalk theres a woman with a problem
But she dont know how to fight
Shes destitute and broken down
She softly whispers is there no one around
And no one hears the sound
Her knees give way and hit the ground
This is the toughest street in town
This is the toughest street in town
This is the toughest street in town
This is the toughest
Like a rat in a pack it attacks
From the back
Through a crack in a track
And you take a smack
This jack has had a hard day
No one told him it would be like this
Hes had to score the hard way
Working on twenty hour shifts
This is the toughest street in town
This is the toughest
Its tough stuff
This is the toughest street around
This is the toughest
Dont you do down
No how
Its just another black spot
Where far too many people have died
Its just another grave yard
And theres not too many people left alive
This is the toughest
Are you tough enough
This is the toughest
Are you rough enough
This is the toughest
Can you bluff enough
Just a minor misery did me no harm
But its there to warn outside the window
The neon is still flashing in the morning light
Down on the sidewalk that woman was blown away
Out of sight
All across the city no one gives a damn
All across the city no one seems to understand
This is the toughest
This is the toughest street in town
This is the toughest street around
This is the toughest
Are you rough enough
This is the toughest
If I were you I wouldnt come around here
This is the toughest
This is the toughest
Are you tough enough

song performed by by Thin Lizzy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Hundredth Year

Not that I'd quarrel with the way
They celebrates their hundredth year
In town (said old Pete Parraday),
But that don't suit us bush blokes here.
So let bells ring and whistles blare
And fill the town with mighty sound,
Let motor noises tear the air
An' bonfires light the hills around.
When I'm five score I want some say
In things (said old Peter Parraday).

I've lived me life here in the bush
(Said Pete) since I was but a boy;
An' all this city noise an' push
Ain't my idea of showin' joy.
Me ears ain't tooned to sich like noise,
And fire is like to wake our fear.
Them ain't the things that we enjoys
When celebratin' birthdays here;
So, if I live so long, I pray
For peace (said old Peter Parraday).

A hundred year's a long, long spell
To hang about this mad ole earth,
And when man nears his century - well
He don't crave much of noisy mirth -
Not for himself, with life near run
Its length, such comes for others yet;
Not for himself; for he is done,
With all life's hectic fuss an' fret.
So let me have my foolish way
In this (said old Pete Parraday).

I ask but this, an' nothin' more,
When comes my hundredth natal day;
Let me sit here beside my door
And dream (said old Pete Parraday).
While bush birds sing the songs I know,
And bush sounds that I love the best,
Wake memories of the long ago,
Let me sit here a while and rest.
Aye, rest, and sleep and, who shall say?
Sleep sound (said old Pete Parraday).

poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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No! Keep It

Why are you smiling so broadly?
It is clear you have been prevented,
From achieving your wishes and desires.

'Really?
Gee, I didn't know that.
And which wishes and desires,
Am I being prevented to achieve? '

I uh
Only you would know that.
Maybe those who are trying to prevent you,
Know that too.

'You might have a point.
Who are they? '

The ones preventing you from achieving!
You know
Your wishes and desires.

'Oh!
So
Maybe I shouldn't smile so broadly,
To have anyone detect
My wishes and desires have already been met.'

No!
Keep it.
Let them believe you are crazed.
They think it anyway.
But lose that skipping down the street business.
That will really throw them off.

'Hmmm
Maybe you have a point.
Maybe I'll go back to my arrogant strut and swagger.
You know
The one they associate with pretentiousness? '

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Stranger's Friend

The strangest things and the maddest things, that a man can do or say,
To the chaps and fellers and coves Out Back are matters of every day;
Maybe on account of the lives they lead, or the life that their hearts discard—
But never a fool can be too mad or a ‘hard case’ be too hard.
I met him in Bourke in the Union days—with which we have nought to do
(Their creed was narrow, their methods crude, but they stuck to ‘the cause’ like glue).
He came into town from the Lost Soul Run for his grim half-yearly ‘bend,’
And because of a curious hobby he had, he was known as ‘The Stranger’s Friend.’

It is true to the region of adjectives when I say that the spree was ‘grim,’
For to go on the spree was a sacred rite, or a heathen rite, to him,
To shout for the travellers passing through to the land where the lost soul bakes—
Till they all seemed devils of different breeds, and his pockets were filled with snakes.

In the joyful mood, in the solemn mood—in his cynical stages too—
In the maudlin stage, in the fighting stage, in the stage when all was blue—
From the joyful hour when his spree commenced, right through to the awful end,
He never lost grip of his ‘fixed idee’ that he was the Stranger’s Friend.

‘The feller as knows, he can battle around for his bloomin’ self,’ he’d say—
‘I don’t give a curse for the “blanks” I know the hard-up bloke this way;
‘Send the stranger round, and I’ll see him through,’ and, e’en as the bushman spoke,
The chaps and fellers would tip the wink to a casual, ‘hard-up bloke.’

And it wasn’t only a bushman’s ‘bluff’ to the fame of the Friend they scored,
For he’d shout the stranger a suit of clothes, and he’d pay for the stranger’s board—
The worst of it was that he’d skite all night on the edge of the stranger’s bunk,
And never got helplessly drunk himself till he’d got the stranger drunk.

And the chaps and the fellers would speculate—by way of a ghastly joke—
As to who’d be caught by the ‘jim-jams’ first—the Friend or the hard-up bloke?
And the ‘Joker’ would say that there wasn’t a doubt as to who’d be damned in the end,
When the Devil got hold of a hard-up bloke in the shape of the Stranger’s Friend.

It mattered not to the Stranger’s Friend what the rest might say or think,
He always held that the hard-up state was due to the curse of drink,
To the evils of cards, and of company: ‘But a young cove’s built that way,
‘And I was a bloomin’ fool meself when I started out,’ he’d say.

At the end of the spree, in clean white ‘moles,’ clean-shaven, and cool as ice,
He’d give the stranger a ‘bob’ or two, and some straight Out Back advice;
Then he’d tramp away for the Lost Soul Run, where the hot dust rose like smoke,
Having done his duty to all mankind, for he’d ‘stuck to a hard-up bloke.’

They’ll say ’tis a ‘song of a sot,’ perhaps, but the Song of a Sot is true.
I have ‘battled’ myself, and you know, you chaps, what a man in the bush goes through:
Let us hope when the last of his sprees is past, and his cheques and his strength are done,
That, amongst the sober and thrifty mates, the Stranger’s Friend has one.

poem by Henry Lawson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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