Читать книгу The Mystical Swagman - Gary Blinco - Страница 6

Book One:

Brennan

The Swagman’s Heaven

The white sand road is long and hot,

As it winds across the land;

The swagman moves at a kind of trot,

With his billy in his hand.

And he makes his way in solitude,

With his bluey on his back;

And he faces life with an attitude;

As tough as the outback track.

Off into the heart of this rugged land,

And ever his theme shall be,

‘Oh guide my way with a watchful hand,

Each day and night in this wonderland;

‘Till the good lord calls for me’.

The road lies silver in the midday heat,

With the trees on either side;

And he passes the fields of ripening wheat,

That are waving brown and wide.

He makes his way with an easy gait,

Where the wheat fields rise and fall,

And he’ll often sit in the shade and wait;

While the magpie trills its call.

His heart belongs to the land that’s best,

With her contrasts rare and strange;

The wide parched plains of the outer west;

Or the fern-clad hills on the mountain crest,

Of the Great Dividing Range.

He’ll tramp the road till his time is spent,

And his wandering days are through,

When bush land’s song, and wattle’s scent

Fill his heart as his time falls due.

Now he’s near his end, but without regret,

Though he’s loath to depart this land;

For he’ll miss the dawn when the hills lie wet,

On the blue horizon’s strand.

From coast to coast in his chosen land,

Where a man and his heart are free,

If he cares for the good of his fellow man,

And lives as true as a poor man can;

He has earned his eternity.

For soon he’ll go to the promised land,

When the Lord in his mercy comes,

To lead him off by the callused hand,

To a heaven filled with gums.

And a corner there by a whispering creek;

For a swagman just prepared,

Where a magpie’s note at its rending peak,

With a swagman’s joy is shared.

He will leave his mark in his native land,

Where his spirit will ever be,

On the dusty road and the thin bush track,

And the treeless plain of the great outback;

From the heart to the shining sea.

- Gary Blinco, 2004.