Leaving the Town ! [poem by Grant Hervey]

[Editor: This poem by Grant Hervey was published in Australians Yet and Other Verses, 1913.]

Leaving the Town !

So we’ve come to the end of our tether, and our cheque is expended at last ;
Who have lolled for the last months together in the bars where we sit now aghast !
We have spent what we earned in the saddle, what we made with the pick and the shears ;
Now it’s time for the bush-ward skedaddle, it’s farewell to the bars and the beers !
We have taken our fill of their pleasure, now we sit with our foreheads a-frown ;
For we’ve come to the end of our leisure — it is time we were leaving the Town !

One trip — just one more — down the harbour ; just one noon on the sands with the girl ;
Ere we give up the beach and the barber, ere our beards once more tangle and curl !
Just one night at the show to remember ; ah ! one cab-ride, dear girl, ere we go
Where the sun burns the plains to an ember and the teams travel dusty and slow !
Just one night, just one night for a guerdon, when the sweat from our brow runnels down,
Just one night to recall, when we’ve spurred on the track after leaving the Town !

Source:
Grant Hervey. Australians Yet and Other Verses, Thomas C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1913, page 65