Monday, October 3, 2011

Lines Written After A Difference Of Opinion

Why don't you go back to Ireland mate the Aussie bloke did say
As we've got far too many foreigners here at least 'twould seem that way
And there's plenty of Australians can do the work you do
So go back to your own country mate Australia doesn't need you

You keep an Aussie out of work and don't you think that's wrong
So go back home to Ireland mate to here you don't belong
You foreigners like rabbits keep multiplying each year
So go back home to Ireland mate we do not need you here.

Australia for Australians mate that's how it ought to be
And in this land you don't belong live in your own country
We are sick and tired of Asians mate and tired of Europeans
Australia for Australians mate you must know what I mean.

What value you to Australia mate you who come here from foreign land
And Australians and their country's history you do not understand
And you know nothing about Australian culture mate correct me if I lie
And what value you to Australia mate I leave you to reply?

My reply

So you want me to leave Australia lad well you'll not get your own way
For I too love your country lad and it's here I wish to stay
And why should I want to return to Ireland lad where there's seldom sunny day
Where it's wintery for eight months of year and the frost turn green grass gray.

Australia for Australians lad who am I to disagree
But in this vast, vast country lad there must be room for me
I come from troubled country lad of people proud though poor
And you'll not find many Aussies lad to shovel muck from sewer?

And I know of Australian history lad I know what there's to know
That Blackman ruled this country lad up to two hundred years ago
And I know of Australian white culture lad ballads like Lawson's Cobb and Co
And McKellar's poem My Country and Paterson's Clancy of the Overflow.

It's true you are Australian lad Australian by birth
But white man has not lived so long on this part of Planet Earth
And though by birthright you're an Aussie lad one of the chosen few
The real thoroughbred Australian comes a darker shade than you.

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