The Shearers Are Back Poem by Francis Duggan

They are back the hard working fellows their arms and their faces bronzed brown
From working in the wind and sunshine the shearers are back in the town
In the town's only pub they are singing from shearing enjoying their break
The shearers are hard working fellows they earn every dollar they make.

They have shorn in distant places and in many an old shearing shed
The men who revel in the tough going for that sort of life they are bred
Their fathers were shearers before them a tradition they carry on
Their fathers too old for shearing their better days now are long gone.

Acker the shearer in his early thirties sits at the counter with a local young lass on his knee
One might say he does seem a bit drunk and she even seems drunker than he
Tonight they are out for a good time and they will party on till late
And in the small hours of the morning when soberer they will copulate.

The shearers are back in the old pub they will drink on till closing time
Hard drinking and hard working fellows one might say in their shearing prime
The local young unmarried females are happy and they have good reason to smile
They will enjoy long nights of drinking and passion since the shearers are back for a while.