The Bushfire ManA Poem by David Lewis PagetBlue
Marue was a flinty soul Who’d
never suffer a fool, Handy
at using his fists, he’d made A
mark at his Junior School, He
only got to the seventh grade When
they kicked him out in the street, But
Blue would challenge their petty rules By
landing square on his feet. He
went to work on the Harbour Bridge, Belting
the rivets home, And
looked with pride at the harbourside As
he stood at the crest, alone, He
browned beneath the Australian sun And
his skin was leather, tanned, As
he earned his chow by the sweat of his brow, But
he loved his native land. He
took to the bush, went shearing When
the jobs were becoming scarce, Carried
his swag on an aching back And
thought that it could have been worse, The
war came on, he enlisted, And
he fought in the desert sands, Then
found himself in a hedgerow in The
last great battle in France. He
marched on home in his uniform And
caught at a Sheila’s eye, A
swift romance and they made their plans And
they wed at North Bondi, It
only lasted a year or two She
was not in his social clique, He
was rough, and ready for anything, She
thought she was quite unique. She
soon gave birth to a daughter And
he paid for the girl to grow, He
sent the funds for her schooling In
a Methodists Ladies show, Her
mother filled up her head with thoughts Above
her station in life, And
warned the girl of her father, who She
said had deserted his wife. While
Blue, he went to the Snowy’s Worked
on the Snowy Mountain Scheme, Along
with thousands of migrants who Had
all had a similar dream, To
start a life in Australia, far From
the bleak Italian shore, That
lay in a devastation After
the great European War. He
bought a cottage out in the scrub Where
he’d always feel at home, Far
from the crush of the city, Where
his wife would remain, alone, Their
daughter never saw much of him, Whenever
she did, she frowned, Her
nose was up in the air, at times When
she wasn’t looking down. He’d
go out fighting the bushfires when The
sun burned hot in the sky, The
temperatures up in the forties And
the timber was tinder dry, He
said he’d like to be buried when His
time had come to leave, He
couldn’t stand to be burned, he’d seen The
God of Fire in the trees. The
mother died in the summertime, The
daughter came to stay, She
didn’t have any money then, But
she’d rather be away, Then
Blue had fallen, was sinking fast Like
a stooped and gnarled old tree, He
said, I’ll leave you the cottage, lass, As
long as you bury me!’ He’d
left, he said, the insurance so She
hadn’t to pay a thing, Just
get in touch with the broker, girl, He’ll
sort out everything, And
then he died on a starlit night On
the porch of his cottage home, He’d
come to the world a fighter, and He
was leaving the world, alone. She
claimed the insurance money, then She
questioned the parlour’s son, ‘How
much is it for cremation, If
it’s cheap, then I’ll have it done!’ So
Blue Marue in his coffin went To
the Crematorium, And
she sat back, and counted the change From
the total insurance sum. She
slept that night in the cottage, Lay
there, making her future plans, She’d
go straight back to the city, Once
the cottage was off her hands. But
as the hiss of the gas jets flared And
the coffin slid from the bier, Lightning
struck at an old gum tree And
set the tree on fire. A
bushfire is a terrible thing, It
creeps, and leaps, and growls, It
spreads right into a firestorm And
when it does, it howls, The
sky glowed red in the evening sky As
the daughter lay and slept, She
stirred when the flames were in the eaves Then
woke, and screamed, and wept. The
cottage sat in the midst of flame, The
coffin started to burn, Up
in the trees, the God of Fire Had
left her nowhere to turn, But
Blue Marue was a flinty soul And
he bore the flames with ease, While
his daughter ran like a flaming torch, And
perished, down on her knees. David
Lewis Paget © 2013 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
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15 Reviews Added on January 7, 2013 Last Updated on January 7, 2013 Tags: flinty, hedgerow, cremation, God of Fire Author
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