More Henry Lawson relevance

Enid Harrison (Forum, February 24) applies our national poet Henry Lawson to today's political scene.

May I add some more quotes that are also relevant.

On politics:

They lie, the men who tell us, for reasons of their own,

That want here is a stranger, and that misery's unknown,

For where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet

My window-sill is level with the faces on the street---

Drifting past, drifting past, to the beat of weary feet---

While I sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street.

On Home:

When you've knocked about the country, been away from home for years,

When the past, by distance softened, nearly fills your eyes with tears,

You are haunted oft, wherever or however you roam,

By a fancy that you ought to go and see the folks at home,

On Fame:

You'll know, when it's done and the fight you've won,

And won on your lonesome own,

That a man climbs up with a host of friends,

But always goes down alone.

On Bush Tucker:

Mutton or chops for breakfast, dry and tasteless, boiled in fat

Bread or brownie, tea or coffee, two hours graft in front of that,

Leg of mutton boiled for dinner, mutton greasy warm for tea,

Mutton curried, I gave my order, beef and plenty of greens for me,

Breakfast, curried rice and mutton till your innards sacrifice,

And you sicken at the colour and the very look of rice.

Keith Whitfield, Woy Woy