Care Free Bloke's Cigar by C.J. Dennis

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Bush-fire prevention week began on Monday and renewed efforts are to be made to check carelessness with fire. - News Item.

There's a little spark and a wisp of smoke
   By the road where the tall gums are;
And a mile away a care-free bloke
   Speeds onward in his car.
No thought of evil mars his day,
And he's well a hundred miles away
And safe at home, as skies grow grey,
   With another fine cigar.
 
There's a spurt of flame in the breathless night
   And a crackling in the scrub;
There's a withered mint-bush burning bright,
   And a kindling dog-wood shrub.
For yards about the bush glows red
But the care-free bloke, his paper read,
Says, "Bonzer day.  And now for bed
   After a bite of grub."
 
There's a sickening roar as the fire sweeps down
   From the mountainside aflame
On the helpless little forest town,
   And one knew how it came.
Ten miles of blackened hills gape wide
And a stricken home on the mountain side ...
But the care-free bloke toils on in pride.
He saw no spark by the bush roadside,
   So how is he to blame? 

First published in The Herald, 25 January 1933

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This page contains a single entry by Perry Middlemiss published on January 25, 2013 8:08 AM.

Song of the Puzzled Pedagogue by C.J. Dennis was the previous entry in this blog.

A Peaceable Man. (As Told to the Bench) by C.J. Dennis is the next entry in this blog.

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