Black Poison
Destroyer ~ Poet
Contest Name 5TH POEM ON THE SOUP..
POISON! 1st first.
I was coming up from Tamworth, riding on a tired horse.
Past Barraba we wandered north, on a slow and dusty course.
Near Barraba I drew short rein, and paused to watch a sight.
A boy was thrown off again, a black horse
who'd buck and fight.
It's there I made an offer grim, to the
farmer and his son.
Swop you horses and I'll ride him,
with this bludger I'll have fun.
I mounted and he bucked away,
I spurred and drove him on.
I was the winner on the day,
cantered off and I was gone.
He was a black and evil thing,
he wouldn't give me half a chance.
He'd bite and kick like lightning, surely
buck and root and prance.
Saturday morning in Moree,
saw aunt Mona at the pub.
She said "get a paper for me",
said "I'll get it for you love."
Dirty Shirt Molloy got a paper
for me, for I couldn't leave the horse.
Black Poison rooted like a flea,
reefed his head up, used some force.
An Irish cop he grabbed the reins,
and held them in his hand.
Arrested us we had no brains,
he'd jail us both quite grand.
My spurs they gouged him proper,
the black lurched down the street.
He bucked and kicked the copper,
clean bowled him off his feet.
We galloped for the border
through a sea of clinging mud.
Coppers chased us in flivver,
to a river choked by flood.
So I dived him in the Gwyder,
off a steep sharp falling bank.
Then we surfaced horse and rider,
wet as shags from nose to flank.
Ride round the coppers came the order,
and bypass all the towns.
Swam the river at the border,
dodged the police, we'd lost those clowns.
Don Johnson
A true story of my father's visit to Tamworth Australia in 1936...
Copyright © Don Johnson | Year Posted 2010
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