[Editor: A poem published in Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 1, 18 January 1918.]
Where We’ve Dossed.
We’ve dossed in some queer places
Since we came to stoush the Hun,
In fact we’ve dossed most everywhere —
In Egypt we begun
Upon the desert sand, ’midst flies
And fleas, and heat, and dust.
We lived on good old marmalade,
Hard biscuit and some crust.
We’ve dossed upon the railroads,
In the carriages de Luxe
And done a trip through Egypt
In some open cattle trucks.
In waterproof and blanket
With bad weather and a sigh
We huddled up together
Each prepared to sleep or die.
We’ve dossed upon the troopships
That sail the mighty foam,
Thinkng of our loved ones,
And dreaming we were home.
We’ve struggled for positions
Among cargo, oil and coal,
And for a decent rock-a-bye
One would have pawned his soul.
Fixim.
Source:
Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 1, 18 January 1918, page 5
Editor’s notes:
doss = to lie down or sleep; especially to “doss down” in a location that is close at hand, convenient, or readily available (e.g. to doss on a couch, under a bridge, or at someone else’s place)
Hun = Germans (“Hun” could be used in a singular sense to refer to an individual German, as well as in a collective sense to refer to the German military or to Germans in general) (similar to the usage of “Fritz”)
stoush = fight
The Institute of Australian Culture
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