In answer to a query as to whether I wrote poetry,
I thought the best way to answer was to post a
sample and let you judge.
You’d reckon he would have known better
Than to settle for “life on the land”
With all of the cautions and warnings,
But he just had to try his hand.
Where to settle’s the question
That starts uppermost in his mind
But most of the climate’s unkind.
No thought of droughts down there,
But with two or three real dry seasons
The threat of his ruin is near.
His sheep just fall by the wayside
They simply don’t get enough feeds
The bit of rain that he’s getting
Won’t promote any growth but the weeds.
In the evenings the dark clouds gather
As though the heavens will burst,
But each morning’s light shows
His land is still dying of thirst.
The hay that was stacked in the hayshed
Is nearly all used up now,
There are only the scraps that the mice left
To show for the sweat from his brow.
The frosts have settled in earnest,
The white landscape can look very nice
But it burns of any new grass shoots
Well at least it kills of the mice.
In between there have been times of plenty,
Plenty of locusts and plenty of mites,
To chew off the pasture he’s put in
And cause him more sleepless nights.
He says, “The life’s not that bad”
But despite the brave front he puts on
He ain’t got the cash that he had.
Right now the farms looking pretty
There’s a tinge of green showing through,
But it’s short, and now it’s stopped growing
And there’s not a dammed thing he can do.
The garden looks neat and tidy,
The sheds all look straight and true,
The fences are in good condition,
There’s a crop in the ground, growing too.
Sounds like everything’s rosy,
It’s just there’s no rain, or cash flow
To meet the bills as they come in
That’s dealing the crippling blow.
Who’s helped him through all of his hardships?
Was it Dalgety’s? Or Elder’s? The Bank?
No, the girl that he married
Is the one he really must thank.
These are the trials of farming
To be weathered and beaten in time
Have enough patience to hang on
And everything works out just fine.
Written by Peter Holt
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