She told him of the news,
She told him how the people felt
And how she’d been accused
Of invading of the privacy
Attempting to dehumanise
And tamper with the sanctity of individual rights.
Susan told Neil,
And Neil went to Bob,
Bob said ‘Bother’,
Or words to that effect,
He fulminated briefly,
Said that what he wanted chiefly
Was to do the thing for which
He’d asked the people to elect him.
But John put the card to sleep,
Establishing his fame,
And great was the rejoicing
Of the folk who thought the same,
But we’re left with the position
That in keeping with tradition
It’s the rich to which the pleasure
And the poor to whom the blame.OBVIOUSNESS
Rob Rob Bobbity Bobbity James Lee Hawke M.P.
Took great care of his image because he was quick to see
That if you are photographed standing with blokes
Whose boats do well on the sea,
Millions of voters will fail to notice
The blokes will be charging a fee.
Sigrid Sassoon
Profoundly affected by her experience of war, Sigrid exposed its horrors and expressed undisguised contempt for those politicians who stayed home, doing nothing to stop it.THE PRIME MINISTER
‘Good morning, good morning,’ the PM lied,
As he paused on the doorstep and turned to the press.
He was saddened, he said, that some children had died,
In his rocket attacks, which were such a success.
‘It’s hard to avoid,’ he told Lawsie and Jones,
As they both went out ‘live’ on their satellite phones,
‘…if people build schools in our targeting zones.’
Kahlihliji Bran
Kahlihliji was a migrant to Australia, settling in Sydney from Lebanon. He had studied sculpture under Rodin but at that time nobody in Australia had heard of either Rodin or sculpture. Kahlihliji became a visionary.THE HALF-YEARLY PROPHET
And a Punter came forth, which was not unusual, and said
Speak to us of Race 5 at Randwick.
And he answered and said:
Goodness me, is that the time?
People of Moron, I say to you, Wisdom is not in others. It is in ourselves. We are not others. Other people are. We are us. And yet they are not Them. They are merely an Us which does not include anyone here. Any questions so far?
The world is a seamless cloth. Take shelter in it but do not expect it to fit.
Love and Understanding are but winds that bear the spirit.
Love may be given but cannot be taken.
Understanding can be neither given nor taken but is the string in the bow of Life.
We are not Us either, incidentally, I should make this clear. Just a small one thanks.
Everything is its own opposite.
Paradox is that which is not paradoxical.
Only the living know death. Only the dead are living.
Only the lonely, dum dum dum dumdedoowah, know the way I feel tonight. Jameson’s if they’ve got it.
A cow has many windows, but only one rudder.
Reason is a tool. Try to remember where you left it.
If you are rich and you would give, give not your money.
The poor know nought of money. Give them of yourself.
A smile, a pat on the head, something of that order.
And he beckoned to the pilot.
I must take rest for a time, he said, possibly on Venus.
And he was gone.
Noeleen Sitwell
Member of an illustrious and very artistic family, the result of a classical education and careful inbreeding. Her brother Wheelbarrow Sitwell was a cartoonist for many years with the Albury & District Gazette and her other brother, Otherbrother Sitwell, was the drama critic for Turf Digest for almost half a century and later wrote books about everything he could remember.STILL RAINING
Still raining I’m afraid.
Sky full of dark foreboding. Look at that sky.
No joy there I’m afraid. We’ll have to postpone the pennant again.
I’m sorry but what can I do?
Terrible weather for bowls.
I can’t remember a time when it was so bad.
Even if it breaks you know you’ll only get a few ends in
Before it pisses down again.
Have you got a raffle ticket?
Oh come on you’d better buy one, it’s for the club.
You’ll never win it if you haven’t got a ticket.
It’s the Bible. Yes we’ve got one too
But you can’t have too many Bibles.
William Esther Williams
Williams was a doctor whose interest in Imagist poetry helped him greatly in his work. Very interested in nature, especially, like Marianne More, in the pantheistic resonance of great big animals.THE CARNIVAL
Why is it that every year
On remote coastlines
Labour leaders
Beach themselves?
Whole schools of them,
Apparently healthy Labour leaders
Thousands of miles off course and stranded,
Spume drifting from their tragic holes.
Why do they do it?
Is it not knowing where they are going?
Or is it guilt over where they have been?
There is no more futile prospect in nature
Than ordinary folk with flippers and buckets
Working urgently in the deepness of the shore
To turn the stricken Labour leaders around
Before nightfall.
Pinko Brooke
Pinko Brooke, whose origins are uncertain, had no formal education and began working as a drover at eleven. He was typical of a generation of young men who went away to World War I; Brookie, like so many others, did not come home. He was killed in the attack on Nieppe Forest in August 1915, two days after writing ‘The Soldier’.THE SOLDIER
If I should die think only this of me
That there’s a little bit of Ballarat in Belgium
And some Bowral and some Nowra and a fair degree of Cowra
And perhaps a dash of in behind the back of Wendouree.
Alain Frost
Frost, three-time winner of the Zitpuller Prize, holds a venerable position in Australian letters, partly because of his great age. He was at one time the oldest white male poet writing in English. Sadly, eighty-six years later, he died.THE TRACK LESS THRASHED
Two tracks leading nowhere in the bush
Miles from anywhere, I rolled the window
Down and had a look up the first one,
Considered the position briefly and
Said I preferred the other one. My father
Looked up from his form guide and asked me why,
I said because it’s not this one. You talk
To him, mother, he said, I can’t deal
With him, the boy’s a bloody idiot.
There’s no need for language, said my mother.
While the matter was discussed I climbed
A very large redgum out over the river
And in a sense I never quite came down.
The great thing about being up a tree
Is that you’re not
