The Thing that Keeps the Bailiff Out [poem by Jack Moses]

[Editor: This is a poem from Beyond the City Gates: Australian Story & Verse (1923) by Jack Moses.]

The Thing that Keeps the Bailiff Out

There’s lots of things we could do without,
If we only knew the way.
We could do without the angry frown,
And the bitter things we say.
We could do without the toothache
In the middle of the night,
And without the nasty medicine
To put that grinder right.
We could do without the rifle balls:
We’d rather loaves of bread —
We’d sooner feast a man on buns
Than riddle him with lead.
There’s a thing we cannot do without,
It fills the bags with grain,
It’s the thing that keeps the bailiff out,
— The little drop of rain!