ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

A life miscast

Wary, tense, he lived his life, doubt running through his veins;
his education, annals of the past.
His mere existence held to heart, while others held the reins
to separate him from a life miscast.

Food by plunder, shelter scant, his bed the scrub at dawn;
uneasy was the sleep he often took.
and long ago the privileges of life had been withdrawn
when name in red went in the statute book.

Fences mean no bounds to those who struggle to survive;
in any kingdom, anywhere on earth.
The modus operandi is contrive, deprive, derive
a sustenance... to ease a life of dearth.

So it was with this young life, domestications few;
those came from what was called ‘a loving home’.
The blood was hot when life went bad, and intricacies grew
in head and soul, and so he chose to roam.

Were the lines he chose to take, in crystal ball revealed;
he’d then see freedom came at any price.
When times are down the price is high when torn throats can’t be healed
and life depends on one throw of the dice.

Thick set scrub his ally now, concealed within the wild;
his chances of survival wax and wane.
Born out of wedlock, fed by few, and now a life compiled
of food... and where to find it... to sustain.

Those who hold the reins are near and danger lies ahead;
unseen, upwind and crouched behind a log.
The hot lead finds the vital mark, the target now lies dead
... a twelve month old cross kelpy cattle dog.
Copyright ...croc

Poor baby - that is so sad croc and smacks of truth - farmers get nervous about stray dogs roaming on their properties and no doubt many dogs have met a fate like this. Deserved or undeserved.

Marty I am so sorry to hear that Not a choice I would ever like to have to make, but in the circumstances what could you do. You can't take the risk RIP little Lilly

Good on ya Croc.

Smowwwkiin!!! He's back!!

Love it. A powerful piece indeed, albeit so sad. Pleeese keep it up love. Yours is a unique style & deserves to be shared.
xx Glenny

Sad, but strong. The sort of poem that stays with you...
Robyn

Yep! agree 100% with what Robyn said, onya mate.

G’day Maureen...
Apologies for not replying to you all sooner but I’ve been busy working and sleeping. I don’t know whether food has ever entered the equation; I’ll give that one 50/50.
As long as there is $200 on a dingo, $50 on feral and ‘wild dogs’, and $10 on a fox... which one is hunted, which one is shot when he’s seen on the property, and which one really isn’t worth a night’s sleep and boredom over.
Stick $200 on the lot, including wild pig, and watch them all drop in numbers remarkably. I have seen a lot of foxes dead by the roadside, and I won’t stop and skin them, but I might if the price was a tad higher...
I know the dingo is not an indigenous animal, but by the living harry he’s been here long enough to be awarded citizenship... his true numbers are down to buggar all. ‘To whom it may concern...’ neither is the Canis domesticus, or the pig, deer, possums that do heaps of damage; and a plethora of others, including the cane toad.
The cane toad is pretty much out of control and as toxic as you please, why is it we don’t have a bounty on cane toads.

“SA Farmers' Federation president Peter White said reports from the pastoral country showed there could be as many as 200 dingoes breeding. "We have seen some substantial stock losses in some areas," he said.” ... Mr White, if I may say sir, there is a feral dog behind every dog owners door in suburbia; often enough over 200 in one road. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 6082368729
That’s the link, I can’t gt it to work, but then I have difficulty getting a fair bit to work these days. On the p/c, that is. If you can get the link to work, there is a photo of two dingo pups that are worth looking at.


Marty... g’day man.
This is fair dinkum troo bloo... I know a bloke who has a few acres down south and he has a lot of horses on there. I think orf memory, he agists horses from the pony club, as well as owning three or four himself. This gent has a standard bred poodle, and another little ‘bitsa’ bitch that would never have said boo to the goose; until the poodle, out of boredom no doubt, started to chase the horses ... every day... often. Then in would go the little one, and had there been one more there would have had a pack. It didn’t worry old mate a tad. ‘Bloody good exercise...’ he said. ---Not in my bloody paddock.

I had a collie bitch in the U/k that I used to take on long distance hikes with me (we would be out weeks at a time, just me and the dog). Whatever the weather it didn’t matter... the only thing that did matter was the fact that I had to have that bitch on a lead every single yard of the way, and she would pull Christopher orf the cross-road, because all she wanted to do was get after those feral sheep. There are quite a few on the moorlands to the central north east. It was good-o going uphill, on the flat wasn’t bad, but going down hill, trying to balance a pack that’s just a wee bit over packed, and a collie dog pulling like a cart horse at your belt isn’t cool.. It seems you can break collies to almost any stock except sheep. My little bitch used to watch the sheep on the t/v... ‘One man and his dog’ and she would go round the back of the t/v to see where the sheep was as it went orf screen. Glad you liked it mate. Bless ya.

Bless ya Nev.

Mon chux... The benefits of having a bloody good teacher I suppose. Bless you girl.
...c xx

G’day Robyn... er... I have a confession to make. I can never remember any of my poems, they get tucked away in the folder, in the briefcase, and I forget all about them. Then my beloved gets them out and says...’Remember this one’ and I wrack my brain to think when and where it was written. The title says it’s mine but I do not remember any of them. The originals are all here, indexed and copyrighted ...croc.

Dave D. It’s a tad difficult for me because they never stay with me; but they stay with Glenny, and she says the same thing... so I admit to being the odd man out. Write them, put them on the site, and file them away. Thanks Dave.
Go well y’all.
...croc

well done croc - and so great to see your words again -
as far as dingoes go they are welcome in my opinion, and the best outcome for this country (at least for NSW) would be to remove the bloody dog fence and let natural attrition take its course - farewell the cloven hoof and massive poulations of native grazers - this landscape has been 'managed' to support foreign species like bloody merino sheep, and with no natural predator, feral goats and pigs flourish while Kangaroos are in plague proportion - result? - zero groundcover, toipsoil blowing away in the dry, invasive weed species dominating the landscape, erosion on the plains and rivers filled with silt - meanwhile, click go the shears......

ranting again...

h

Got that link croc - cute little babies ...but......

One of the biggest dingoes shot in SE QLD supposedly was shot on our old property Springdale which was right on the dingo fence. There was a newspaper clipping in the kitchen drawer when we bought the place with a photo but I have never been able to find this info on Google. Our biggest problem was pigs

Hully if we were half smart we would be farming roos not cows and sheep - just got to work out how to keep the buggers in Our neighbour was making more money from feral goats than he was from the sheep at one time - there were so many of them. I made sure my two feral babies stayed close to home.

And croc you are so right about domestic dogs being just as bad - individually probably OK but let the pack mentality set in and all hell can break lose. They have/had a lot of problems around the Samford region with 'wild' dogs killing stock on hobby farms - turned out to be domesticated pets running loose at night - my girlfriend had one of her two dogs a little maltese also killed by them, her staffy fought them off and got away. These 'wild' dogs came onto her property after dark after perhaps her daughters horses???? she was a wild life carer and had a lot of animals she was fostering there. She thinks her two dogs went out to investigate and that was the end result.

People have to get a handle on correct animal restraint procedures - because it is always the animal who pays the ultimate price not the stupid owner.