AROUND THE BOREE LOG
(John O’Brien)

Oh stick me in the old caboose this night of wind and rain
And let the doves of fancy loose to bill and coo again
I want to feel the pulse of love that warmed the blood like wine
I want to see the smile above this kind old land of mine

So come you by your parted ways that wind the wide world through
And make a ring around the blaze the way we used to do
The fountain on the sooted crane will sing the old, old song
Of common joys in homely vein forgotten, ah, too long

The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?
Yet spend another night with me around the boree log

Now someone driving through the rain will happen in I bet
So fill the fountain up again and leave the table set
For this was ours with pride to say - and all the world defy
No stranger ever turned away, no neighbour passed us by

Bedad, he'll have to stay the night, the rain is going to pour
So make the rattling windows tight and close the kitchen door
And bring the old lopsided chair, the tattered cushion too
We'll make the stranger happy there, the way we used to do

The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?Y
Yet spend another night with me around the boree log

He'll fill his pipe and good and well and all aglow within
We'll hear the news he has to tell, the yarns he has to spin
Yarns, yes, and super yarns, forsooth, to set the eyes agog
And freeze the blood of trusting youth around the boree log

Then stir it up and make it burn, the poker’s next to you
Come let us poke it all in turn, the way we used to do
There's many a memory bright and fair will tingle at a name
But leave unstirred the embers there we cannot fan to flame

For years have turned the rusted key and time is on the jog
?Still, spend the fleeting night with me around the boree log

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John O'Brien was pseudonym for Patrick Hartigan who was a Catholic priest. My mother, a devout Catholic, used to read his poetry to me. By the time I was in my teens, she correctly pointed out that I had 'no more religion in me than the cat'. However, I maintain a great fondness for the poems in the collection 'Around the Boree Log'.

Australian Dictionary of Biography

--Stewie.