Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RED CREEK CONSULTATION, by GEORGE ESSEX EVANS First Line: Red creek rush was not a duffer Last Line: After all! Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Deception; Desire | ||||||||
RED Creek Rush was not a duffer Far from that. E'en the most benighted buffer Struck it fat. For the wash with gold was teeming, And the strings of men came streaming Till some hundred tents were gleaming On the Flat. To this bright and happy valley Came one day, G. Theophilus O'Malley, In a dray, With his wall-eyed mare Susannah And his lovely sister Hannah Smiling in a witching manner Like a fay. The astonishment was utter Of the Boys! When they saw her garments flutter, O the noise! You may judge of the elation, The excitement, the sensation Which O'Malley's fair relation Caused the Boys! And she was a perfect stunner, Tall and fair; Every digger longed to "run her On the square". For her cheeks were like a posy And her lovely little nosey With a tiny tilt uprosee In the air. And her lips were rather redder Than a rose, And her eyes were rather blacker Than two sloes, And the worn and weary digger, Getting very tired of nigger, Praised the outlines of her figure And her pose. Now this beauty, love-compelling, Innocent, Shared her brother's humble dwelling, Just a tent, Where, as soon as toil was over, With desire to be in clover, Came the steps of every rover Love-intent. There the crazy concertina Of Jim Bound Squealed like any sick hyena, Till the sound Of the whining of a fiddle With a rupture in its middle (Joy and pride of Tommy Biddle) Would be drowned. And outside sat every digger, Rank on rank; They admired dear Hannah's figure As they drank, And they sang of love and glory But restrained the language gory Of the picturesque Gulf story, Blanky-Blank. O, she set the Red Creek Gully In a blaze. She refused the Red Creek Gully In five days. Sundays Red Creek wished to lend her Forty horses and attend her Clad in all the lurid splendour It could raise. Till it happened to this valley Of delight That Miss Hannah B. O'Malley Was a blight. There was bickering and biting, There was jealousy and slighting, There was drunkenness and fighting Every night. Then Miss Hannah sent a letter To the mash That she loved none less or better Not a dash! "Consultation" might be wicked, But for fun you couldn't lick it: She would be the winning ticket, With the cash. And all Red Creek passed a motion On the spot, To accept her clever notion Like a shot. "Just three hundred," said Bill Grady, "At a fiver!" put in Brady, "And the man who draws the lady Takes the lot." Empty grog-casedid she mind it In the tent? No. Miss Hannah sat behind it, Innocent. And the boys they looked quite wily As they planked the dust down slyly, And Miss Hannah blushed so shyly As they went. O, the camp was sweet as honey On the game! Here was something for your money! Here was fame! O the wages and the jawing On the day before the drawing! And the iciest hearts were thawing At her flame! When the morning sun was gleaming Bright and fair, To the tent the camp came beaming, Free from care; But Miss Hannah and O'Malley, And the gold-dust and the tally, And the best nags of the Valley Were not there! Take a lesson from the story Of the fall Of Red Creek in the glory Of her thrall. They who never could resist her They who hadn't even kissed her Found she wasn't Malley's sister After all! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AMERICAN WEDDING by ESSEX HEMPHILL HISTORY OF DESIRE by TONY HOAGLAND ARISTOTLE TO PHYLLIS by JOHN HOLLANDER A DROUGHT IDYLL by GEORGE ESSEX EVANS |
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