Vonda Stanley's collection of early Australian bush poems
From the George Bateman Collection, copiled by Howard Rose.
Tell her I'm OK
They swear a bit, they drink a lot,
We know that they're not Saints.
They gamble in the same old way,
And make the same complaints.
They paint the town, when they're on leave,
And gamble with their pay.
But the message that comes back to us,
Is, "Tell her I'm O K".
Whem they're out there in the desert,
In sand up to their eyes.
And they haven't any comforts,
Midst the heat and dust and flies.
They show the same old spirit,
In the goold old Digger way,
And the message that comes back to us,
Is, "Tell her I'm O K".
They didn't stop to grumble,
When the time was right to fight,
When they marched through bleeding sand storms,
Through a bitter, freezing night.
They sang their song in battle,
In the good old Digger way,
And the message that comes back to us,
Is, "Tell her I'm O K".
They made a bit of history
At Bardia and Tobruk,
But they will only grin and tell you,
That they've had a bit of luck.
That they've played a hard and risky game,
The good old Digger way,
And the message that came back to us
Is, "Tell her I'm O K".
Go Back to index