Week 7
this story is based on the truth as told to my father

A CONVICTS SON

Don’t call me empty headed! Though you believe it’s true,

I think I’m smart sometimes, You think I’m not as smart as you,

I know how many rocks it takes to build a paddock wall,

I know how my feet hurt for I have no shoes at all,

I know what time the sun comes up I see it every day

I know what nights the moon will shine to help me on my way,

I know that working in the dark with snakes and dogs about

Is a very scary thing,  sometimes I scream and shout,

I don’t know if it helps at all but it makes me feel stronger

I tried to ask someone for help,  told, don’t talk to your betters!

Don’t get above your station boy, I don’t know what they mean

I work as hard as any can, for a boy I think thirteen,

I’ve no new clothes no shoes at all, just hessian on my feet,

I found a shirt that someone lost, and then got whipped for theft! 

I’ve heard of school the farmers kids go there every day

And I’ve been told to answer yes of course I know the way

I’m just having one day off to help the farmer out, 

But it’s not true I’ve never been I don’t know what it’s about.

My dad died and my mum’s dead too or so I’m told she is

But I saw her with a baby and she said I’m not her kid,

My brothers and my sisters are someplace on this land, 

One day when They are older I hope they understand

I could not wait, no work, no more, I tried to run away,

The farmers kids, they call me dumb and other names all day,

Hey stupid, dumb, an idiot, they wrote that on my shirt,

I ‘m Charles I said , oh that’s a joke!, A convicts son your dirt,

They tell me that I’m just as bad as my dad was long ago

To be a convicts sons not good and so to death I go!

I sat upon the shore line with my shirt so wrote upon,

Till you came along, I thought the way was the water And to drown,

You told me that I was not dumb that you would help me read

That you would show the way for a farm boy to succeed! 

Said leave your shirt upon the sand the things they said can rot

A clean ones waiting at my home my dad has quite a lot

And so I walked away with you, a rich girl with a slave!

I threw my shirt down on the sand, it’s shreds caught in a wave! 

I feel brand new because of you, your offer of new life,

My shirts away it will decay, one day you’ll be my wife.

Heather Denholm

August 2020