Albo of The Undertow

Dragging us under

Apologies to Banjo Paterson

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Options, sent to where I saw him, on the telly, years ago,
He was oppo when I wrote it, so I sent the letter to him
Just 'on spec', addressed as follows, "Albo, of The Undertow"

And an answer came directed, in hindsight as expected,
And I think the same was written by a bloke behind a bar;
'Twas his PR guy what wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it,
"Albo's at the Forum schmoozing and he don't care where you are"

In my moments nearly troppo, visions come to me of Albo
Gone a rovin' down near Davos where the Western traitors go;
And the stock price northwards swinging Albo trots behind them singing,
For the traitor's life has pleasures that the rest of us can't know.

And the slopes have friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the hookers in the strip joints and the bars;
And he sees the vision pretty of the fifteen minute city,
And at night the wondrous glory of the Chinese 'lectric cars.

I am sitting in my homemade wooden armchair, where a cool-aid
Drinking loony struggles feebly from the nightly tv news;
And the foetid air and gritty of the masked up, jabbed up hippy,
Through the telly, on like clockwork, spreads hysteria for views.

And in place of cocktail parties I can hear the blocked up art'ries
From the fibrous clots, and ambos making hurry down the street;
And the talk of fibrillation and strokes in young, our nation
Learns a new and censored language if you dare just dare repeat.

And the hurrying people daunt me and their masked-up faces haunt me,
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste;
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I wouldn't mind to have-a-go, to swap a week with Albo,
Like to take a turn at rovin' where the UN cabal goes;
While he ran the parish council, with agenda and financials - 
But I doubt he'd suit the vestry, Albo, of "The Undertow".