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Henry Lawson - Knocked Up
Work rating: Low

I`m lyin` on the barren ground that`s baked and cracked with drought, 
And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out; 
I`ve got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin` brow — 
I`m too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now. 
 
     Oh it`s trampin`, trampin`, tra-a-mpin`, in flies an` dust an` heat, 
     Or it`s trampin` trampin` tra-a-a-mpin` 
       through mud and slush `n sleet; 
     It`s tramp an` tramp for tucker — one everlastin` strife, 
     An` wearin` out yer boots an` heart in the wastin` of yer life. 
 
They whine o` lost an` wasted lives in idleness and crime — 
I`ve wasted mine for twenty years, and grafted all the time 
And never drunk the stuff I earned, nor gambled when I shore — 
But somehow when yer on the track yer life seems wasted more. 
 
A long dry stretch of thirty miles I`ve tramped this broilin` day, 
All for the off-chance of a job a hundred miles away; 
There`s twenty hungry beggars wild for any job this year, 
An` fifty might be at the shed while I am lyin` here. 
 
The sinews in my legs seem drawn, red-hot — `n that`s the truth; 
I seem to weigh a ton, and ache like one tremendous tooth; 
I`m stung between my shoulder-blades — my blessed back seems broke; 
I`m too knocked out to eat a bite — I`m too knocked up to smoke. 
 
The blessed rain is comin` too — there`s oceans in the sky, 
An` I suppose I must get up and rig the blessed fly; 
The heat is bad, the water`s bad, the flies a crimson curse, 
The grub is bad, mosquitoes damned — but rheumatism`s worse. 
 
I wonder why poor blokes like me will stick so fast ter breath, 
Though Shakespeare says it is the fear of somethin` after death; 
But though Eternity be cursed with God`s almighty curse — 
What ever that same somethin` is I swear it can`t be worse. 
 
     For it`s trampin`, trampin`, tra-a-mpin` thro` hell across the plain, 
     And it`s trampin` trampin` tra-a-mpin` thro` slush `n mud `n rain — 
     A livin` worse than any dog — without a home `n wife, 
     A-wearin` out yer heart `n soul in the wastin` of yer life.
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