Drought Farmer

Financially embarrassed he feels depressed of late
With little in his life in which to celebrate
His livestock getting thin the paddocks bare and dry
And in the warm Autumn winds the thistledown does fly

Like balls of feathered fluff across the morning sky
To sow their thistle seed in the paddock nearby
The overgrazed paddocks by the sun and wind stripped bare
There is not enough of grass here for to satisfy a hare.

His nearest neighbour Jack was buried yesterday
Financially bankrupt his bills he could not pay
His wife she found him dead in the paddock in the sun
The flies around him buzzed on the ground by him his gun.

And death it is so final when all is said and done
She is left to take care of their seven year old son
In drought times are so hard for the people of the land
Yet Nature and her ways we could never understand.

But unlike his neighbour Jack who at his own hands died
He never even once has thought about suicide
He has his faithful wife and their little girl of three
And he will battle on through times of poverty.

The brown dust it is flying in the breezy morning air
Swept by the willy winds off of the paddocks dry and bare
And despite the hard times he has vowed to hang in there
For he can see some hope where others see despair.