Vonda Stanley's collection of early Australian bush poems

 

A Snake Yarn

"You talk of snakes," said Jack the Rat, "
But, blow me, one hot summer,
I seen a thing that knocked me flat
Fourteen foot long, or more than that,
It was a regular hummer!
Lay right along a sort of bog,
Just like a log!

"The ugly thing was lyin' there
And not a sign o' movin',
Give any man a nasty scare;
Seen nothin' like it anywhere
Since I first started drovin'.
And yet it didn't scare my dog.
Looked like a log!

I had to cross that bog, yer see,
And blue I was humpin';
But wonderin' what that thing could be
A-layin' there in front o' me
I didn't feel like jumpin'.
Yet, though I shivered like a frog,
It seemed a log!

I takes a leap and lands right on
The back of that there whopper!" He stopped.
We waited. Then Big Mac Remarked, "
Well, then, what happened, Jack?"
"Not much," said Jack, and drained his grog.
It was a log!"

                                     W. T. Goodge

 Go Back to index