Ted Redgum

On a backblock down Salisbury Plains
Ted was born in 1895
Thrust from the loins on to rusty soil
And the cord was cut with a scythe
He said "People there are city folk today
And they couldn't tell shit from clay
A ripening crop of stobie poles -
There's no regrets when the memory roams
That earth is in me bones"

Did his bit in the First World War
Took the shilling to fight the Hun
Mud up to his crotch in Flanders fields
And the gas eating at his lungs
He said "Me best mate died hanging on the barbed wire
And when the attack was through
We took some prisoners to HQ
And shared a fag and a yarn or two
They were the same as me and you"

And I asked old Ted what history meant
As he sharpened his hedging shears
"What a bloody fool question that is my boy
I lived it for 83 years"

See him every year on Anzac Day
Swilling beers down at the Rex Hotel
He'd laugh with his mates and go deep in thought
Where he went even he couldn't tell...
He said "King and country, cock'n'bull
We fought just to survive
The anger might have faded, still this feeling grabs me deep inside
I guess you could call it pride"