Country blokes is kind, he said,
And sat upon his swag
(I had no pipe tobacco,
So he said he’d “risk a fag.”)
“A country bloke’s my sort o’ bloke,
As I’ve had cause to find.
Them city coves is cold as mud:
But country blokes is kind.
“Now, f’rinstance, just you take yerself.
I meets you on the road,
A stranger, fur as I’m concerned —
A cove I’ve never knowed.
An’ when I sprags you for a smoke,
I’ll bet you didn’t mind.
You done your best; tho’ fags is muck.
Country blokes is kind.
“Country hearts is rightly placed
A every battler knows.
If I’d have asked you for a feed,
Or p’raps some carst-off clo’es,
I’ll wager you’d have searched your house
For all that you could find
In shape of tucker or of duds,
Yes; country blokes is kind.
“But city coves! — I ain’t been there
For years — nigh on fifteen.
But lately I meandered down
Just for a change of scene
But rekernise a human bean?
They ain’t that way inclined,
That crowd of stone-eyed strangers there.
Not like the conutry kind.
“To ask a bob for food or drink
In cities is a sin,
An’ they goes an’ calls a copper,
An’ the copper turns you in.
But, if you pitch a likely tale,
Most like you don’t git fined.
So I hoofs it back to country scenes
Where blokes is nice and kind.
“So here I am, back in the bush,
Still battlin’ an’ dead-broke.
An’ the minnit I seen you I sez,
‘Now, there’s a country bloke,’
I sez. ‘He’s got that sort of face.’
I’m broke, but I’m not blind.
Stone-broke … Well, I best push along …
Thanks. Country blokes is kind.”
(C J Dennis)
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Based on Topics: Mind Poems, Faces Poems, Sin Poems, Cities Poems, Change Poems, Countries PoemsBased on Keywords: clo, coves, raps, fag, fined, minnit, fags, yerself, battlin, meandered, battler