This piece is a fiction story of times past when the Australian bush was a hard place.

A time when our indigenous were treated little better then slaves and a white girl would never allow a black boy to be near her.

A very sad time in our history but a time that cannot and must not be forgotten.

 

 

 

 

Jimmy grew up way out west,

Wandering the vast, open plains.

He was a proud young boy and knew the bush well,

So a squatter took him under his reins.

 

Sarah grew up in Sydney town,

Boarding school was her domain,

She finished when she was 15 and left,

her first time out on the plains.

 

One day Jimmy was talking to Boss.

When young Sara, She arrived home.

His heart was captured from that moment on,

But he worshipped her all on his own.

 

Her voice was sweet like a little blue Wren,

He hair, black as the night,

Her skin was fresh, fresh as the morn,

Her eye's, glittering starlight.

 

One night that Summer She awoke with a start,

And saw a roaring, red glow.

Fear sunk in her gut as if she'd been struck,

Then she screamed an horrendous, “OH NO!”

 

Twas fire she'd seen it looked so obscene,

As it climbed a Stringy-bark tree.

It had a mind of it own spitting fire and brimstone,

Twas The beast from hell she did see.

 

The inferno roared from the hills behind,

The homestead, it stood in its path.

Fighting was the only way they could save it,

And fight they chose to the last!

 

The Boss said to Sarah, “Go saddle a horse,

Ride like the devils chasing you”.

“Young Jimmy my boy, look after my Sara,

For I must bid you ado.”

 

Jimmy ran along side her not missing a step,

His long, muscled legs powering him,

He watched and searched the ground up ahead,

For anything that could do the horse in.

 

He smelt the smoke and looked back behind,

Just as he heard a loud scream.

He saw the horse, its broken leg in a hole,

And Sara on the ground, out clean.

 

He ran over to her and scooped her up,

Then sat her next to a gum-tree.

He could hear the horse crying,Wailing in pain,

So he put it out of it's misery.

 

With Sarah in his arms he scanned up ahead,

Hoping to find some escape.

He moved up a hill and to his surprise,

There was a dam as large as a lake.

 

He ran like the wind, the flames at his heels,

He made it to the water just in time.

He threw Sarah down pushing her under,

She woke and was sure she had died.

 

The water it flooded into her lungs,

As she fort Jimmy from below.

She rose out of the water as before her eyes,

A huge iron-bark did explode.

 

It dawned on her then what he was doing,

As she dove back under and froze.

She held her breath, staring into his eyes,

Fearing they were both going to go.

 

They could hold no more so together they rose,

Expecting to be burnt to a cinder.

But the fire was gone, it had past on,

So they both collapsed and whimpered.

 

After some time there senses came back,

As Jimmy looked deep in her eye's.

He said, “We go back, now, Back to your home,

and see if the Boss-man survive.”

 

The house was there with the boss and the men,

Who had given it all in the fight.

The homestead was safe, so were the sheds,

And the livestock had been saved from their plight!

 

Now, the years have past and Jimmy is gone,

Sarah has left this earth too.

They lived a full life, together they stayed,

On the land that both of them knew.

 

The squatter's and such never accepted them much,

Even the churches had bid them ado.

Shunned they were but they did not care,

For their love was all that they knew.

 

They didn't fret, nor have a regret,

For they loved the life that they had.

And the proof is out there, somewhere today,

where someone is their Grand-lad.

 

The End

Terry West

Copyright

2020