The Gusunder From Downunder Poem by John D. Farley

On the corner of Bourke and Burton, just down from Darlo’ Station.
A steamy laundry plied its trade, the best one in the nation.

I’ve never seen so many sheets, and shirts and all the rest.
All those office men would tell us our laundry was the best.

I boarded there for quite some time, and I went to Darlo’ School to learn.

Come home and change and meet me mates, errands, selling papers, all that was the go.

Then one day something happened that amuses me all me days.
And I’ve made the point that humor happens several different ways.

You see across the road was a big white place, right behind the cells.
And all the residents were distracted people, all with special hells.

On the day the big commotion happened we were standing on the corner, just talking stuff, football, school and the like, new bikes, second hand really ‘cause times were really tough.

And then, from inside the house a fracas has erupted, men are yelling, things are crashing.
The neighborhoods disrupted.

Banging, crashing raised a frown, voices raised, peace was shattered in our town.

It was then the object of this yarn appeared, to sounds of a broken pane.

Glass is broken, look we said, it’s white and painted, things will never be the same.

The porcelain Gusunder will live forever in my brain.

It sailed majestic to it’s end and crashes on the path, my friends and me said is that it, but there’s more to come, it’s simply called the aftermath.

From the winda jumps a man, he’s young, he’s the reason for our mirth.
You see my friends he’s quite unclad, he’s as naked as his birth.

He leaps and jumps and heads himself for a tram just turning into Burton.
He’s on a mission, our new hero, escaping is for certain.

Aboard the tram and heading east, in the front and out the back he tried.

Grown men yelled, women screamed, and little babies cried.

Up the road he runs, heading for St Vincent’s with men in white coats close behind.
They return in minutes empty handed, our new hero they couldn’t find.
I will always remember that day, the merry chase he led.

The GUSUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER, it’s white with blue flowers, it may just be UNDER the bed.