Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOLUS BOLUS, by E. G. MURPHY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HOLUS BOLUS, by                    
First Line: He lay in the hospital, pallid and weak
Last Line: "for the blithering camel blew first!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Dryblower
Subject(s): Accidents; Camels; Sickness; Illness


HE lay in the hospital, pallid and weak,
The wreck of a once healthy man;
His breathing was wheezy, his voice was a squeak,
As his story of woe he began.

"'Twas Danny O'Hara," he murmured in pain,
"Who told me his camel was bad—
A bulky young bull, with the strength of a crane,
But a temperament quiet and sad.

"O'Hara, who'd drifted from Kimberley down,
Had scratched every field to Lefroy,
And shifted the country—red, yellow and brown—
For the metal elusive and coy.

"Through seasons of flushness and seasons of 'slate',
He'd managed to battle and roam,
Unmoved by all offers to purchase the mate
Whose hump he regarded as home.

"And the camel was sick—laid limp in his tracks,
As his mother had laid, full of spears—
When Danny had shattered the phalanx of blacks,
And wiped off a pile of arrears.

"O'Hara had left him at Cassidy's Hill,
And he'd call me an angel from heaven
If I'd help him to give him a pick-me-up pill
And keep him from throwing a seven.

"A pipe was procured—three feet of bamboo—
Then Danny, myself and the pill
Went bravely this medical office to do
For the patient at Cassidy's Hill.

"'When the pill's in the pipe, and the pipe's in his jaws—
Which I'll open,' O'Hara observed—
'You'll place the free end of the blow-pipe in yours
And puff when his gullet's uncurved.

"'I'd blow it myself, but my bellows are weak,
For I've got a young winze in my lung;
Since I argued the point with the blacks at the Peak
My puffing machinery's bung.

"'The pill is composed,' he further explained,
'Of axle-grease, sulphur and tar;
While a piquant and suitable flavour is gained
By a dip in the kerosene jar.

"'To aid his digestion there's tin-tacks and shot,
Then I've seasoned it strongly with snuff;
And I want in his system to scatter the lot,
So take a deep breath when you puff.'

"With the pipe to my lips a long 'un I drew,
Till my diaphragm threatened to burst,
When, bang down my gullet the flaming pill flew,
For the blithering camel blew first!"





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