Upon the pages of our time
Fate wrote with iron pen --
"The waiting for the women
And the battle for the men."
From a lone backblock selection
Where the gray plain meets the sky,
A woman sent her only son
To battle or to die.
He had never seen great cities,
He had only thought of ships,
But he heard the far-off challenge,
And he answered, heart and lips.
He left the lucerne acre,
And he left the patch of corn,
And the creek among the willows
Where the cattle drink at morn.
He left the range of mountains,
And the green scrub's mighty hush
For the glory of Australia
And the honour of the bush.
He marched to martial music
In a city by the sea,
And he heard the distant echo
Of the conqueror's melody.
He remembered still the homestead,
And the yellow sun-dried plain,
And the mother and the sweetheart
He might never see again.
But the memory of his fathers
Stirred the fighting blood -- and then
There was waiting for the women
And fierce battle for the men!
First published in The Brisbane Courier, 17 March 1900
