Jack

I only knew my Grandfather Jack

As an old man but I heard

He lived a lot of lives

I heard he was a soldier

Fought in the Great War

For a 15 year old boy

It wasn’t great at all

He survived every battle

And every battle took its toll

Jack he was a soldier

I’m told

Some say he was a drifter

Looking for a new life

Before he’d even found it

He had to take a wife

She was heavy with his child

He had to come in from the cold

Jack he was a drifter

I’m told

I don’t know what’s truth or fiction

Fantasy or fact

But I’ve heard a lotta stories

Bout Jack

They said he was a pioneer

Sent to the new lands

A tiny country town

Where only one building stands

He scoured the land of trees and scrub

Looking for his pot of gold

Jack he was a pioneer

I’m told

I don’t know what’s truth or fiction

Fantasy or fact

But I’ve heard a lotta stories

Bout Jack

I heard he was a farmer

In the land of wheat and wool

Scratching out a living

From unforgiving soil

Till one did he’d had enough

The sheds and the paddocks sold

Jack he was a farmer

So I’m told

Old Jack sat by the fire

Listening to blue hills

Then he donned his old grey suit and hat

And offered no farewell

His ageing Holden Brougham

Carries him up the hill

So him and Jim can get another one in

Down at the Hyden Hotel

The wind blows through

A farmhouse

with no windows and no doors

Dugites slither all around, under rotting floors

The soldier, drifter, pioneer

And the farmer are no more

The radio is silent

And the fire’s long gone cold