In Australia, we have many characters of renown,
And none more so than cattlemen frequenting outback towns,
Country boys, who from the start, are born and reared and bred,
With the love of cattle flowing in their hearts and their head.
The country rural mateship, bonds the cattlemen so strong,
They find the time to all come together, when things go wrong,
A saddled horse without its rider, prancing all around,
Is a signal to the men that their “brother” must be found.
It looks a lot like Midnight, Jonathan’s spirited black steed,
We all must quickly find him; he may be in dire need.
Jonathan had mentioned it was time to check his herd,
This horse without its rider, something bad must have occurred.
Jay was the chosen leader of the wide search and rescue,
A man of many talents and a leader they all knew,
He divided them in groups and sent them on their way,
Hoping Jonathan would be found before the end of day.
Each small group took a rifle and if Jonathan was found,
One shot fired would signal, that’s time to head homeward bound.
They searched the mountain country where the timber it stood tall,
And followed dry creek beds, while others, the waterfall.
Was late in the afternoon when a rifle shot was fired,
They’d found their lost mate Jonathan, a doctor he required.
They dragged him through the bush and scrub and got him to the track,
Where all his mates they stretchered him, so he could make it back.
An ambulance was called, medics administered first aid,
His broken leg bound to a splint and in the back was laid.
His spirit was so positive, ‘though he was in such pain,
Never once did the injured stockman moan or complain.
As his body slowly mended, while he was in his bed,
He thought about the cattlemen and stories in his head,
Those great yarns of the outback and all that happens there,
Bucking horses and bull riding at the annual country fair.
As the stockmen go mustering along the dusty road,
The rhythm of the burly beasts evokes the cattlemen’s code,
A natural affinity, a connection that’s so strong,
United together, the cattlemen move them on.
Hilda Oakley
Copyright © 11.08.2014
