Bush Mechanic Ingenuity Poem by Don Stratford

The cursin’ and the swearin’ could be heard for miles around
As the bush mechanic worked and toiled with great gusto and great sound
There were problems with the thing-a-majig and the whatsit gismo failed
And he couldn’t fix the flamin’ thing no matter how he wailed

He attacked it with a hammer, chisel, heat and cold as well
He tried all manner of things he could and cursed them all to hell
Nothin’ he tried would budge it he was miffed beyond belief
So he threw the bloody thing away it was such a big relief

Never one to get beat, you see, he got his dander up, you bet
So he took his crayon from desk draw, he’d beat that damn thing yet
On dirty paper no less you’d expect, his formula and sum
He’d make the bloody thing work all-right, he’d make that damn thing hum

After drawing hard throughout the day and half the night as well
The scratchings on the paper were, as you’d guess, a little hard to tell
He rubbed out this and that you see as he thought of another way
It all just looked like one big mess but by golly he’d make it pay

He set to work to make that thing so it would last a long, long while
With lots of welds to this and that all the time he has a smile
‘Cause he knows it will look silly but i-t will surely work
And for many years to come they’ll say that that’s a real strange quirk

A success it was and it all worked fine “but boy” did it look weird
Things jutted here and jutted there and people they just leered
But there’s no denying what he’d done to improve upon the life
Of the thing-a-majig and gismo that gave him all that strife

His idea has now been stolen as no patent did he file
But the bush mechanic has no concerns as he knows that all the while
That it was he who has created it, the thing that’s gone world wide
As it’s all his in-gen-uity that fills him full of pride


Don Stratford © Roma Qld.27 / 8 / 2005