Texas, Qld.4385 Poem by Warren Brown

Texas. Texas in southern Queensland. Oi.
There's thieves and rogues and hoi poloi.
But, some decent folk reside here too,
Its my opinion however, they're far to few.

The ground is hard and rather rocky,
I'd say there's many a broken hearted cocky.
Silly fools, trying to grow things on rocky hills,
Adopting European ideas with all their ills.

The Italians had a zest for life and work.
Made a go of it with the old tobacco perk.
The big tobacco barns beside the river stand,
Provided life and work across this barren land.

But that's all done and come to a stop,
The do gooders have wilted the crop.
We don't talk about tobacco now, its sin,
Now, non smoking is all the go, its right "in".

The hills look hard and rough and stony broke
But the mineralised grass there fills the poke
Of every herder with a sheep or cattle holding.
But some are doing it tough, I hear a few are folding.

The town is small but its got a fair sized sprawl,
But not that big, the roosters to each other call.
The town has a goodly supply of barking hounds
That come alive after dark to do their rounds.

The owners must be quite deaf or dumb (or both)
To go outside and quiet them down, seem loath.
Been hearing it for that long, the din just don't sink in
No doubt if approached, you'd find their skin is thin!

Such is life at Texas, a little Queensland rural town
Dressed in summer's heat, soon to be winter's gown.
One could perhaps, be moved to write a song -
Not likely to get a prize though except, perhaps, the "gong".