Droving Woman

She buried him down on the edge of town
 Where the brigalow suckers on the cemetery creep
 She stood with them children in a heavy brown gown
 What you want you just can't always keep
 "I'm sorry", I says, "I knew him so well"
 Though your body is young you just never can tell
 When the hand of fate rings the final death knell"
 She just turned with the saddest of smiles
 She says "At the start well we knewed it so hard
 We were always dealt the severest of cards
 Honeymoon spent droving Jamieson's stock
 Through the wildest winter you seen
 Romantic notions of horses and land
 They were soon dispelled as a fantasised dream
 Watching cattle at night in the mid-winter cold
 Turns a person, both wiry and old
 The flame of the breakfast fire'd be dead
 As the sun rose up he'd be miles up ahead
 I'd be breaking the camp there and rolling the beds
 While he fanned the stock wider for feed
 When the weather turned sour with the onset of rain
 An' the truck'd bog down to the axle mains
 He'd move ahead with pack saddles and chains
 And I'd wait in the mud by the road
 With the blankets and canvas there hung out to dry
 With nothing for heat 'cause you couldn't light a fire
 With no stock permit for the forthcoming shire
 The dog'd whimper in the winter wind rain
 Cattle don't camp where they're sloshing in rain
 They keep walking all night like a dog on a chain
 He'd be red eyed and weary with a pack horse gone lame
 I'd sit miles behind in the mud
 It was down through Charleville up to Julia Creek
 Living on syrup and damper and salted corn meat
 We had nothing but the 'roos and the mailman to meet
 We'd move up and down with the rains
 But them inland skies have the starriest of nights
 With the dance of the fire throwing flickering lights
 The beauty of it's sunsets were a constant delight
 I felt that nature had let me intrude
 The enormous vastness of them inland plains
 Gives you a lonely contentment to which you can't put a name
 It's satisfied glow city folks seldom attain
 They spend life on a right rigid rail
 The kids got their schooling from the government mail
 We posted their work in at each cattle sale
 They considered the learning a self imposed jail
 They'd rather help their father and fail
 Early last month at the end of the dry
 He was given a horse nobody could ride
 Alert were his ears with a fire in his stride
 He was young and his spirit was wild
 To catch him each morning was an hour long battle
 We had to collar rope his near side to throw on the saddle
 He'd bite and he'd strike, he made my nerves rattle
 Pandemonium reigned with each ride
 It was a hot summers' mornin' at the government bore
 There was stillness around that I'd never felt before
 How could he know it was fate at his door
 That was stealthily watchin' his moves
 He mounted up quick taking slack from the reins
 Grasped a full hand of hair from the horses long mane
 He'd just hit the saddle when the horse went insane
 Churning dust in a frenzy of fear
 The girth on the saddle let go at the ring
 The surcingle slipped it was impossible to cling
 The horse felt it go made a desperate fling
 He was thrown to the length of the reins
 I heard his spine snap like a 'roo shooters' shot
 He'd busted his back on the concreted trough
 Sickness and fear were the feelings I got
 For the doctor was a six hour drive
 I looked at his face and his colour turned white
 He turned slowly and said "I can't make it till night
 My body is broken, I'm bleedin' inside"
 And the life slowly drained from his eyes
 I'll sell up the plant and I'll move here to town
 Before the winter returns with a chill on the ground
 For what I've just lost can seldom be found
 I was blessed with the gentlest of men
 Eventually the children will move to the east
 But I couldn't stand the bustle of even a quiet city street
 I'll stay in the scrub here where my heart really beats
 For some dogs grow too old for change.