A nice bit of light verse comedy remembering Bill, with a bit of a charge in that line, 'Before environment, there was outside.’
Doug
> On Feb 18, 2020, at 2:31 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> i
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> Why don’t you go and play outside
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> less a question than a Mum instruction
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> to Jungle Jim-on-TV-watching me
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>
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> Before environment, there was outside
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> Land of apricot trees, grass, concrete, sky
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> Monochromed eyes adjust blinkingly to colour
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>
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> Pick up a footy from under the clothesline
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> Bounce it a few times. What would Bomba do?
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> Where are the swinging vines?
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>
>
> ii
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> Tarzan lived outside, even slept in trees
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> I felt more outside watching him and safari-suited men
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> with pith helmets than in the backyard
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>
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> Ah-woo, ah wooh woo wooh
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> mysterious deep African jungle sound
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> I was later told was a kookaburra
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>
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> But ex-Olympian Johnny Weissmuller
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> did all his own swimming stunts
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> and patented his yell for all Tarzans to come
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>
>
> iii
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> Backyard cluttered with excess from inside
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> What’s this cracked tabletop doing out here?
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> Best deal with it with this old hammer
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> Now what? Bit junglier down the side
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> Ah, fuchsias. Tear off a branchlet
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> Fold it near the flower, aim and shoot!
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> In between the tool shed and the garage
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> squelch through solid Wandering Jew
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> to the fence - end of my outside
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> iv
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> How did that marble top get smashed?
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> Dad demanded, after work
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> Just going outside to play, Mum
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> bw
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>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuations 2 (UofAPress).
Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
Listen. If (UofAPress):
Done in by creation itself.
I mean the gods. Not us. Well us too.
The gods moved into books. Who wrote the books?
We wrote the books. In whose dream, then are we dreaming?
Robert Kroetsch
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