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The Song of Billy Sing

In 1914 Billy Sing heard the rallying bugle's call 
Our last man and shilling it will be our country's all
They needed more recruits and wanted them all true blue
But he had a Chinese father's blood flowing in his veins too
And Australia was firmly one with their White policy school 
But good shots were needed so they broke this unbreakable rule

He joined the 4th Light Horse to Turkey's Fatal Shore
When Billy's skill as a sniper came to a deadly fore
He gave no quarter and 300 Turk's were made a martyr
Then the Turks chose Abdul with Billy as his terrible charter
Their battle raged but in the end there would only be but one
Billy's deadly eye meant Abdul's life was finally done

Billy's reputation reached up to Sir Ian Hamilton's sight
He called him a cold blooded killer no mercy in his fight
Hamilton made sure his work at Anzac meant a DCM
But par otitis and mumps meant this battlefield's end
Hospitalized at Malta, then Ismaïlia, Egypt his next bit
Then to the 31st Battalion he was transferred by his writ

To the Western Front and the war raging in all its fury
His battle was in support of his mates as his deadly duty
They thought of him as a cold blooded killer with no equal
His service meant other wounds with gas as a terrible sequel 
In the end the doctor's final judgement call was truly made 
Billy was no long fit for his calling for his soldier's trade

Back to Australia at the end of the Great War as his reward
But there was no happiness in his life that he could now afford
His marriage broken and a soldier's farm had not succeeded
His life was only short in a boarding house finally completed
Now a bronze plaque holding his deeds high has been erected
An ANZAC Hero and Chinese Australian will always be remembered.

© Paul Warren Poetry

Copyright © Paul Warren | Year Posted 2017

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