The Old Black Billy an' Me - Louis Esson

The sheep are yarded, an’ I sit
Beside the fire an’ poke at it.
Far from talk an’ booze o’ men
Glad, I’m glad I’m back agen
On the station, wi’ me traps

An’ fencin’ wire, an’ tanks an’ taps,
Back to salt-bush plains, an’ flocks,
An’ old bark hut be the apple-box.
I turn the slipjack, make the tea,
All’s as still as still can be -
An’ the old black billy winks at me.

---

Louis Esson (1878 – 1943) Australia (born Scotland)
Source: The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. Walter Murdoch, comp., Oxford University Press, 1918