Boat People

Boat People by Bob Moore © 2017 We, were the boat people of our day, from many lands so far away with Europe in chaos from war and strife looking to find a brand new life And so began an ambitious dream, The Displaced Persons and Migration Scheme “Populate or Perish” was the catch cry then come here to live, we need more men They came without families, left them behind hoping a better life they would find and bring them out here later, hopefully when they found a home, and a job, they would see them again The Australian Government paid most of the fare “Bring out a Briton”, by sea or by air just stay two years, and your debt is then paid get a job and work hard, your future is made You need to work, and fit in you know we want you here, to help us grow and you need us, for a place to live so we both have something, to take, and to give We will not always get along the ties to our homeland, are still strong you’ll call us names, we’ll call them back sometimes it’s just words, now and then it’s a whack Dago, Gypo, pommie and wog but be ready to fight if you called us a dog we’d call you a convict, but you didn’t care and so friendly insults would fly through the air That’s how it was built, this homogeneous land with all the people working, and lending a hand multicultural is the word, politicians all use now back then we were just Aussies, and we did it somehow