Australians.

Many men have sought to tame her
Many men have played their hand
Many men have come to court her
From far and distant lands
But the men who'll win her favour
And take her for their wife
Are the men who love Australia
And will give to her their life.

She's the Queen of Southern Waters
And we, her dev-o-tees
Protect her sons and daughters
In this land that's girt by seas
This wide brown land that we call home
Where the golden wattles blow
Is the land from which we'll no more roam
As we watch our children grow

Now our children call her mother
This land we took to wife
In this world there'll be no other
For who, we'll offer up our life
We see into the future
A world --- free from wars and pain
Where our children and their children
Are all --- Australians........ The Anointed,

I didn’t see no yellow tins, light beer, aint on their page
They seemed to like high octane and Green Tins are all the rage
I saw the old man lying there, Green Tins all scattered round
With a young bloke there beside him, just squatting on the ground
Did the old man take a fall I asked? Should we help him to his feet?
Or should we call an ambulance? But the young bloke didn’t speak
So I knelt beside the old man with his hair of silver grey
And was just about to help him up, when I heard the young man say

He’s only Green Tin dreaming mate, in the morning he’ll be right
It’s just that Green Tin Dreaming helps him make it through the night
He don’t like it on the mission, but his family all live there
Where his pension every fortnight buys his tucker, smokes and beer
Ah, them Yellow Tins they might be right when you’re at the Rodeo
When you’re laughing and you’re joking with them folk that you don’t know
But when the darkness of the night -- descends, and you needs to numb your brain
It’s time to buy another box of them Green Tins once again.

Yea! He’s only Green Tin Dreaming mate in the morning he’ll be right
It’s just that Green Tin Dreaming helps him make it through the night
They tried to change his way of life, but they filled his mind with doubt
And I guess he’s just forgotten what his life was all about
So I’m sitting here beside me mate in the shade of this old tree
In the sandy bed of the River Todd, where he sleeps so peacefully
But if we don’t change the system, the years will roll on by
And he’ll keep on Green Tin Dreaming until the day he dies

I couldn’t sleep at all last night, as in my swag I lay
Those words--- they kept on haunting me as I heard that young man say,
“He’s only Green Tin dreaming mate, in the morning he’ll be right
It’s just that Green Tin Dreaming helps him make it through the night
He don’t like it on the mission, but his family all live there
Where the only things he has in life, is his tucker, smokes and beer
And if we don’t change the system, the years will roll on by
And he’ll keep on Green Tin Dreaming until the day he dies.”....The Anointed.

Poetically we wander ---
Through this land of ours and ponder
O’re the wonder and the beauty of it all
The moonlight casting shadows
From the mountains o’re the meadows
While the night birds sing their songs in timbers tall.

Camped on a creek among the frogs
We hear the howling of the dogs
Wild dingoes baying at a winter’s moon
Now the icy winds are blowing
Down the mountain and we’re knowing
That we’ve gotta get agoing --- mighty soon.

Some say we must be crazy,
A pair of poets --- born bone lazy
For we are like a pair of rolling stones
But we’d consider it a loss ---
To simply sit and gather moss
So, we roll across this land we call our own.

And we hope that in our stories,
You’ll sense the heartaches, and the glories
Of the people that we meet along the way
Or see the beauty and the wonder
Of this glorious land down under
And realise the price, that our parents had to pay.

For this wondrous land we live in
Was once harsh and unforgiving
Until opened up by people such as you
Irish, Germans, Poms and Asians,
With blood and tears have forged this nation
Whose emblem is the Emu and the Roo

For the Emu nor the kangaroo
Can take a backward step that’s true
Like them --- we must move forward if we dare
So let us make the rafters ring ----
And with joyful strains now let us sing
The song that all Australians love --- “ADVANCE AUSTRALIA FAIR”.....The anointed.

THE DEBT Collector.

His speech was slow and sometimes slurred
Weren’t real steady on his pins
And his hair once black had turned to silver gray
He loved to sit out on the verandah
Reminiscing to the kids
But by then his mind was fading fast away.

He were’nt no mental genius
He couldn’t read or write
His parents never had no time for school
Yet he could talk on any subject
And with the best he’d hold his own
I tell you mate that man was no one’s fool.

He was born down south in Maitland
Where he spent his younger years
‘Till he headed off to fight in world war one
With his best mate there beside him
They received their duffle bags
Plus their uniforms, their bayonets and their guns.

They had both grown up together
Never spent a day apart
The people in that town had called them twins
And they gave the local cop some hell
But he toed them into line
Then he had to say goodbye to Bill and Jim.

But Jim, he never came back home
Bill returned all by himself
Then he sired and raised a family of eight
And I’m sure that no one’s heard him
Ever speak about that war
Or mention what had happened to his mate.

And yet I’ve got a vague idea
He said something ‘bout that war
Yet not to me, but to someone back in time
For he said, “I ain’t forgotten mate
They never paid their debt
Before that bloody armistice was signed.

Then one day out on the veranda
When his mind had totally gone
I sat and gazed into the eyes of him
And I’m sure I saw them sparkle
As a smile spread o’er his face
He was somewhere in the past with his mate Jim.

So if you make that final journey
And you travel back through time
To where, the world and everything began
And if you pass among the trench’s
In those killing fields of old
Would you search awhile for that silver headed man?

For he’ll be there within those trench’s
Standing by his old mate Jim
Who lays there in the mud among the dead
And his three-o will be melting
As he collects the price for Jim
With his rifles smoking barrel, glowing red.

And you aint never going to stop him
Till that debt’s been paid in full
For he believes he has permission from above
But before you travel onward
In those gentle streams of time
Please whisper, that his grandson sends his love..... The Anointed.

THE AUSSIE STOCKMAN

The thunder of the cattle hooves across the western plains
Dark clouds out on the horizon, not clouds that promise rain
But billowing plumes of blue grey smoke that pale the setting sun
To the horses lads and ride like mad, there’s a battle to be won.

She’s burnin’ on a three-mile front and the wind it’s risin’ fast
We’ll all be sore and sorry lads before this night is past
We’ll have to stop her at the river or kiss the stock goodbye
It seems a daunting battle boys, but at least we gotta try.

Go cut the boundary fences Stan, if we can’t stop this burnin’
There’ll be no livin’ creature left in them paddocks come the mornin’
And get that truck across the river Jack, don’t bog the heavy plow
Cos we gotta get that firebreak cut within the flamin’ hour.

She’s comin’ at a rate of knots, fanned by that swirlin’ wind
The skies, rainin’ red hot embers now, grab anything you can
Branches, bags, or saddle cloths, don’t let them spot fires spread
Cos we’ve lost the flamin battle boys, if she jumps that river bed.

Keep burnin’ back from the firebreak and I think we’ll have her beat
Where’s them water bags young fella? come on lad, back on ya feet
I know it’s bloody rough out here, it’s enough to break your heart
But them men, they’ll perish in this heat if you don’t play your part.

Strike me pink, you bloody beauty’s, you’ve stopped her in her tracks
Blackened faces streaked with tears, weary arms and achin’ backs
You fought it to a finish lads, though at times I thought you’d choke
You’ve earned yourself a just reward, come on mates, let’s have a smoke.

And that’s your Aussie stockman mate, don’t mind a beer, don’t mind a fight
And battlin’ grassfires in the dark, well, that’s just another night
And yet, better men you’ll never find, you can trust ‘em with your life
You can trust ‘em with your money mate, just don’t trust ‘em with your wife.

The Anointed.

GODS COUNTRY

I’m torn between the cities, with their flashing neon lights
And the sand dunes of my western home where I’d often lie at nights
And gaze upon the heavens so crystalline and clear,
While the distant howl of dingoes was music to my ears.
To see that desert burst to life with just an inch of rain
A kaleidoscope of colours; Ah to be there once again.
But of all the places in this land I think I’d rather be
Where the forests of the Daintree sweep down toward the sea,
With its miles of golden beaches and waters glistening in the sun
This is Gods own country to be shared with everyone....... The Anointed.

A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE.

She had just heard the news on the wireless
Of the war that had spread like a storm
When she turned and saw in the light from door
Her child in a uniform.

Silhouetted by gold from a light that was cold
Cold light from a dying sun
As he stood there with pride she gasped then she cried
Oh! what have you gone and done?

I’ve joined the army dear mother said he
I’ll cross the great waters, strange lands will I see
Adventures await me, so mother I go
To Egypt, then countries where we’ll meet our foe.

Oh my boy, cried his mother, war isn’t a game
It’s not, bang bang you’re dead then you get up again
It’s men gone insane, bayonets dripping with gore
Ah! Could I but shield you from the horrors of war.

Then tell me dear mother what should I do?
Give up my chance of glory for you
Stay here by your side while we watch all the others
Waving goodbye to their fathers and mothers?

I’ll not be branded a coward, god damn
I’m no longer your baby, I’ve grown, I’m a man
A man she sighed as he walked away
A man who’d turned seventeen today.

How long had she waited for his letter to come?
And tears welled in her eyes as she read, “Dearest mum
I’m sorry I hurt you and I’m missing you so
Forgive me dear mother, but I just had to go.

I had to see Egypt, Ah! what history lies here
But tomorrow they’re shipping us out I fear
Don’t know where we’re going and no one will tell
But I’ve heard on the grapevine, it’s the Dardanelle’s”

In the still of the night when the world was all quite
She felt a sensation inside
Like a child in her womb, crying out from the gloom
Help me mother, I’m caught by the tide.

Then her pale spirit rose from her body that dozed
It lifted then drifted away
To stand on the sand of a far foreign land
Where her poor wretched baby lay

He’d been drowned by the tide and he lay where he died
Caught up in the wire ‘neath the waves
And the ocean ran red with the blood that was shed
By our brave Anzac boys that day.

And her spirit it stayed with her boy where he laid
Her boy who had grown to a man
For they found her next day cold lifeless and gray
With his letter still clasped in her hand......... The Anointed.

MY MOTHER MY COUNTRY

This is my country, the land of my birth,
Where my ancestral spirit’s roam
Sixty long years I’ve toiled in her soil,
This is my land, it’s my home.

For six generations, my fathers,
Have battled the droughts and the floods
And have won from her soil a living,
And some even offered their blood,

In defense of this land and her people,
And though their bones lay in foreign ground
Their spirits returned to this beloved land,
for with her are their destinies bound.

And they merge with the land and her creatures,
With the forests the lakes and the sea
With her they are one and I am their son,
In fact, those spirits are me.

So, I walk through, and talk to my mother,
To the mountains the rivers and streams
And she speaks of the past and the present
And of the future she holds in her dreams.

She speaks of the times of destruction,
Before the advent of man
And reveals all the scars and the pox marks,
Just some of the terrible wounds,

Inflicted by star stones from heaven,
And she knows that the day must come
When from out of that dark void above us,
Will be hurled the killer stone.

Rugged, wave torn and wind swept,
Her old mountains gaze out o’er the sea
And the sigh of the wind through those craggy clefts,
Sing the songs of old history.

They sing of the time when all lands were one,
One land in a watery world
And how the life of that time was bought to an end,
When a killer stone was hurled.

When, from out of that dark and endless pit,
A star came crashing to earth
From that one great land of origin,
All the continents were given birth.

She speaks of the giants who ruled that land,
Plus, near all of the life that it bore
Which were piled in mounds of rotting flesh,
In the valleys and along the shores,

Of those shattered lands as they drifted apart,
And Lord, how those gulfs have grown
How many millions and millions of years
Has she waited here all alone.

Waited and longed to become once again,
One with the lands of her birth
To bridge the gulf and share with the world,
The bountiful fruits of her earth.

To walk hand in hand with each sister land
As they seek the salvation of man
For though earth is doomed,
Their children will roam, throughout new heavenly lands.

In the wind her voice sighs, my child I must die,
So take from me all that you need,
When in the heavens you fly, to those world’s way on high,
Remember, you are my seed.

When, the earth and the sun, have again become one
Will you kneel on those worlds way on high
And remember the womb from which you were born?
Goodbye my children goodbye………. The Anointed

THE FEUD

He sat there on the veranda a smouldering pipe hung from his mouth
And his old grey eyes grew misty as he gazed towards the south
Far out on the horizon where the blue skies kissed the sands
Was the ridge that marked the boundary of what used to be his land.

His neighbour, Clem McDougal, may he rot there in his grave
He stole that land some thirty years ago, and it was legal so they say
But not everything that’s legal, is on the strictly up and up.
Nah! he stole that land the mongrel, now he’s left it to his pup.

Young Matt McDougal, Clem’s only son, he got the flamin lot
But anything that sprung from old Clem’s loins should be taken out and shot.
God! he hated all McDougal’s, as did his younger daughter Jess
Who had cared for the ageing stockman ever since her mother’s death.

Now Jess was a bit promiscuous, she weren’t a virgin, but that’s no sin
There’d been a few blokes in her life, especially one young gentleman
And she thought she really loved him, till the day she had to chose
Between him and her ageing father, of course the young bloke had to lose.

Cos she loved that old man dearly as only a daughter can
And there weren’t a thing in heaven or earth, especially not a man
Who could drive a wedge between them, or so the young girl thought
But true love would turn her upside down, and bring her previous plans to nought.

‘Twas on a hot and sultry summer’s day, down by the water hole,
Just a few miles from the homestead, to where Jess would often stroll
It weren’t nothin’ like your coastal creeks, crystal clear and runnin’ cool.
Nah! it was warm and still and muddy like most western river pools.

Well young city girls they might perspire, but western women sweat
And her skin was hot and clammy, her clothes all soaked and wet
They clung to her slender body, almost like a second skin
And that water looked so inviting, that Jess opted for a swim.

Well, it seemed a bit erotic, floating naked beneath the sky
As she watched a brilliant lacewing hover near then flutter by.
She saw it circle for a moment until it finally come to rest,
On a firm pink rounded island, and that island was her breast.

Then a movement on the farther bank, caught the corner of her eye,
‘Twas her neighbour Matt McDougal and she gave a startled cry.
But Matt, he hadn’t seen her, and she gave him such a fright
When he worked out what had happened, his face it first turned white,

Then it went a brilliant crimson as he quickly turned his back
And apologized profusely. Now if it hadn’t been for that,
If he had made some crude or corse remark like other blokes she’d known
She would have quickly bundled up her clothes, and headed back for home.

But his innocence, his childlike ways, it bought the demon out in Jess
So, she accused young Matt of spyin’ till he spun round in defence
And there emerging from the water, silhouetted by the sun
Was the goddess of love Aphrodite, or was it Venus carved in stone?

Well, it didn’t matter much to Matt, cos he weren’t seein’ thru his eyes.
His whole body sensed her presence, he felt more than his hot blood rise.
Jess had him by the heartstrings and the other ones as well.
A McDougal now would suffer, god, she was gonna give him hell.

That’s the way the whole thing started, Jess wanted to hurt him bad.
And get a little sweet revenge for what had happened to her dad.
Matt would see the thing he wanted most and know he’d never get it
For what a McDougal had done to her dad in the past, a McDougal would now regret it.

Well Jess confided in her sister, who was married with kids of her own.
They never saw each other much, but conversed a lot by phone,
Her sister had married the Johnston boy, from the districts largest station
And to her, young Jess, now confessed, she’d lost control of the situation.

But her older sister Margaret had smelt it in the wind,
Cos in their recent conversations Jess had only spoke of him.
Then just before the B&S, that’s the Bachelors and Spinsters ball
Their old man who’d been out ridin’, went and took a nasty fall.

Didn’t seem to be much damage, you couldn’t see a cut or bruise
But he complained of internal injuries and his legs they wouldn’t move.
So, they kept him in for observation, cos they couldn’t take a chance.
Which left Jess at home all alone, at the time of the annual dance.

Now she went to the ball with her sister, who had organised the show
But the warnin’ bells were ringing and she knew she shouldn’t go.
Cos Matt was gonna met her there, and now just the sound of his name
Made her tingle inside and her heart wild like a moth fluttering around a flame.

After a drink or two I guess she knew, but I don’t think she gave a fig
She was held so close by the man she now loved, and lord young Matt was big
Their bodies entwined they danced a dance that nobody else there knew
Their knees were swaying their hips gyrating but their feet just didn’t move.

Well, they couldn’t wait, goin out the back and into Matt’s waiting car
They headed for home where they could be alone, but they never got that far,
Their first stop was at the three mile and there by the road in the dust
Consummated their love ‘neath the bright stars above, but didn’t quench their lust.

Five more times that car ground to a halt, before reaching Jess’s place
It could be the air in the west cos I swear, there was longing still on his face
Three days and nights he stayed there with Jess, hell, the man was a bloody wreck,
Have you ever gone even half that long on nothing but coffee and sex?

Now the old man, he’s out on the verandah, sittin’ there in his favourite chair
Which was ragged and worn, the edges all torn, just a little bit worse for wear,
And upon his lap the young twins sat, laughin’ and sqealin’ with glee,
Ridden the buckin’ bronco, their tiny legs astride each knee.

And his elder daughter sat on the stairs, she’d come to visit that day
Her eyes were fixed on the smilin’ old man but her thoughts were miles away
She reminisces,
I remember the time he first bought it up, and told me about his plan
To marry off Jess and square up with Clem, and get back the family land.

It was he who suggested Jess go for a swim, on that hot and sultry day
After ringing young Matt and telling him, to get his bloody strays
From off our flamin’ waterhole or else he’d shoot the lot,
Things then all had to be left to chance but at least it was worth a shot.

Then with feedback from me the old man could see that nature was takin’ its course
And just before the B&S he took that fall from the horse,
God, I hope he don’t ever audition for one of them TV plays
Cos his acting was so atrocious, in the end I had to pay,

That doctor was gonna send him home, he knew he was bungin’ one on
But a word in his ear, a few quid for some beer and he soon changed his flamin’ song,
Yeah, like clockwork it ran, the old mans plan, plus he got a bonus as well
Cos Jess inherited our mothers temper, now Mcdougal’s life it’s hell.

Hey there goes young Matt, streakin’ out the back, oh god. he’s a fool of man
He’s stopped to turn and argue, and Jess got him with the fryin’ pan.
Well old man, your showin’ your age, but there’s nothin’ wrong with your noodle
The only shame is that your grandkids names, have to be McDougal.

The Anointed.

THE HEALING STONES
He sits there in the shadows as the piccaninny dawn
Finally fades away to darkness once again
The dying embers of his campfire
Project figures on the wall
Shadows dancing in the embers dying flames.

Amid the paintings of his fathers
Etched in the living rock
He listens to the voices of the stones
All the stories of his dreamtime
Songs echoing from the past
To the rhythm of the clacking of the bones.

The gentle murmurings of the waters
In the river there close by
Sing the songs he heard while still a little child
And his spirit deep within him
Dances with the native dogs
As land and waters tell the tales of dingoes wild.

And he sees there in the morning mists
All rising from the earth
Ancestors from his long lost yesteryears
Rays of light, like fingers spreading
Ascending from the past
Then once again his time of darkness disappears.

Squatting there before the campfire
A tin mug in his hand
He stands, and bathes in the glory of those rays
Kicking dirt upon the fires remains
He saddles his old mare
With one last look towards the rock he rides away.

His heart still singing there within him
His soul so light and free
His spirit dancing with his fathers round the flames
But should the darkness of life’s changings
Descend upon his soul once more
He’ll return to touch the healing stones again.

The Anointed.