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Ted
On a back block down Salisbury PlainsTed was born in 1895Thrust from the loins on to rusty soilAnd the cord was cut with a scytheHe said "People there are city folk todayAnd they couldn't tell shit from clayA ripening crop of stobie polesThere's no regrets when the memory roamsThat earth is in me bones"Did his bit in the first World WarTook the shilling to fight the HunMud up to his crotch in Flanders fieldsAnd the gas eating out his lungsHe said "Me best mate died hanging on the barbed wireAnd when the attack was throughWe took some prisoners to HQAnd shared a fag and a yarn or twoThey were the same as me and you"And I asked old Ted what history meantAs he sharpened his hedging shears"What a bloody fool question that is my boyI lived it for 83 years"See him every year on Anzac DaySongtexteSwilling beers down at the Rex HotelHe'd laugh with his mates and go deep in thoughtWhere he went even he couldn't tellHe said "King and Country, cock'n'bullWe fought just to surviveThe anger might have faded still this feeling grabs me deep insideI guess you could call it pride"As a navvy on the line in the NullaborThe Depression left its scarsHeaving cold steel rails in the burning sunAnd freezing beneath the starsHe said "If you escaped the susso queuesYou had a hell of price to payAnd when time flowed like an open woundI'd blow me dough on a SaturdayAnd drink the pain away"On Sunday arvo he'd sit and talkOver a dozen cold West EndOf what was gained and what was lostAnd would never come againHe said "Money you know it comes and goesOn booze and rent and fagsYou can make a fortune on overtimeAnd lose it all on the nagsBut years of toil with a bunch of matesYou know it leaves you satisfiedThough we never moved a mountainWe sure gave it a try"Pick the wheat from the chaffAnd the steel from the scurfAnd the honest man from the liarIf wisdom came by other namesTed was earth and fireOn the day that old Ted diedNo-one would have knownBuried in a pauper's graveHe lived and died aloneAnd the 727s roared overheadWithe the drone of the angry roadsThere seemed a pause for just a whileAnd the silence was heard around for milesAnd the silence was heard for miles.
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