A Need To Be Somewhere Else
I’m the one who needs to be somewhere else,
I cannot stay in one place.
The grass is green where I’ve never been
and never have shown my face.
When I look back on every track
where there’s nothing to entice
me to return to where I never yearn.
You won’t see my footsteps twice.
I’ve lived through drought and I’ve lived through flood,
I’ve been where a fire’s burnt black.
I’ve seen the curse where the locusts’ worse
and the crops are all under attack.
I’ve been laid down in a cyclone town
when winds are a howling gale.
In the shearing shed when the markets dead
and the cheques bounced over the rail.
I’ve no good terms on the squatters land
for he’s never a man to talk,
and he can’t control his angry soul
when a restless man don’t walk.
If there’s sag in my tucker bag
near a campfire I’m content.
He’ll try to rule I’m a thieving fool
so my time with him is spent.
I’m the one who needs to be somewhere else;
each camp is a rainbows end,
where the only gold that I get to hold
is to wake in the morning again
to bear my load on the distant road
for ahead lies my clarity,
that with my charms in the need for alms,
there’s a world full of charity.
I’m the one who needs to be somewhere else,
in my chase for the know not what,
where time ahead guide the fearful dead,
something that I am not.
From coast to coast my eventual ghost
will tramp o’er the trail I made,
which can’t be denied is Australia wide
when I rest where my body is laid.
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment
Turn off ads, get more exposure for your poetry, and get more features with a
Premium Membership.
