Classic Poem

This world of ours is a mixed-up world, as no doubt you've heard before;
And it may be more of a mixed-up world — or it mightn't — " after the War " .
(I could have managed a middle rhyme with " the battle flags unfurled " ,
But the soiled-white rag and the Red Cross flag are all that count in the world
At the present time — damn the middle rhyme!) This song, as you'll agree,
When you've read it through has mostly to do with my brother-in-law and me.

We swore and swore in the dust and heat of the sheds of a bygone day,
And the damper and mutton were always sweet as we marched with our cheques away.
We lived the life of the Level Lands out there in the Land of Men
(We have known the hills, we have known the sands of the Upsan Downs since then);
We had no blasted relationships, for we'd left our tribes behind —
We were mates in the truest sense of the word of the real Australian kind.
My brother-in-law and I were mates in the days when our hearts were young;
And we knew little of loves or hates, and less of a woman's tongue;
We carried our swags on the Mulga Track, and camped 'neath the Starlit Sky —
My name was Jim and his name was Mack (my brother-in-law and I),
But names have little to do Outback, as most of you bushmen know;
I remember the days when his name was Jack and mine, I think, was Joe.

When we came to a " town " where the mirage curls in smoke from the blazing track
We shared our money and shared our girls (which was always the way Outback);
We bore no signs of the cities' work, we were healthy and young and free,
The Darling Timber and roofs of Bourke were all that we cared to see.
We had no wives and no wasted lives, we had no thoughts of the past,
But, alas! and alack! we drifted back to the city streets at last!

Now Mack he married my sister Liz, as brothers-in-law will do,
And I, to show 'em what mateship is , I married his sister Lou.
Mack found he'd married my tribe, he did, and soon he longed for the tracks;
And, before there was ever a thought of a kid, I found I had married the Macks!
It was Hell all round with their paltry hates for men from the western sky,
So we took to drink, and were boozing mates, my brother-in-law and I.

My brother-in-law he got divorced, as brothers-in-law will get
(They are mostly helped by a mother-in-law or a sister-in-law, you bet!),
My relatives said that if I was a man I'd go and riddle the brute!
They seemed to forget, as relatives can, that my brother-in-law could shoot.
But I wasn't a man (so it would appear), for less than a month went by
When we met again and we had a beer, my brother-in-law and I.

I'll tell you a secret, and only you and the rest of the world and Liz:
I reckon my people had more to do with the wreck of his life than his .
And the years went past, and — anyhow, I got divorced as well;
Perhaps on account of the same old row (I'm damned if I can tell).
And sometimes after a beer or nip (or maybe more), we'd try
To study out our relationship, my brother-in-law and I.

" Were we divorced? Or was it a draw? Were we mates as in days gone by?
Or brothers still in the sight of the Law, my brother-in-law and I?
Was he " Uncle Mack", who had been Outback, and his nephew my son Bill?
Was I " Uncle Jim", who had been with him, and his son my nephew still? "
But we'd have another, and give it best with a sort of fraternal sigh —
We still were mates in spite of the rest, my brother-in-law and I.

My brother-in-law is off to the War (and I am with him, too);
His son and mine in the firing-line are doing what they can do.
They are pals, we heard from a little bird, and gay in a game that is grim;
And they'll be surprised when they get word from Uncles Mack and Jim.
It's a mixed-up world, as I said before, and the end I cannot descry,
But you can't complain that we've lived in vain, my brother-in-law and I.