01 November 2013

Contacting Clancy

I've been on a bit of an Australian Bush Poetry binge recently.  (I haven't been on a similar blog-writing binge, but you knew that already.)  It started with a poem I wrote as a competition entry but there was more in the tank after I'd finished, so I kept on writing.

Do you remember Banjo Paterson's poem Clancy of the Overflow?  It starts with the writer sending a letter to Clancy's last known address but receiving a return letter that Clancy has gone droving in Queensland and couldn't be contacted.  That inspired me to write this parody about trying to contact Clancy in a digital age and coming up dry.



Contacting Clancy


I had written him an email which I’d filled with gripping detail,
Then I took my list of Contacts and I searched it through and through.
The address I had looked decent, but it wasn’t awful recent:
I had clancy-o@lachlan, then dot-com then dot-au.


As soon as I had sent it and had settled back, contented,
My inbox notified me of immediate reply.
‘Twas an automated message that confirmed my dismal presage:
“Clancy’s taken leave of absence, gone to Queensland, FYI.”


So I check his Linked-In profile, and in classic Clancy O-style
He has many email contacts but I dunno where they’re from.
So which one of these addresses is his current? My best guess is
I should try the first one: clancy-o@overflow.com.


And although it’s quite a long shot that he’d find a wireless hotspot
I could try his Hotmail, Bigpond or his DrovingLife-dot-co.
Any case, with bush as backdrop, I can’t see him on his laptop
‘Cause he’s jolly hard to contact, Clancy, of ‘The Overflow’.



- Ukulele Jutsum © 2013.

5 comments:

Tracy P. said...

Ha, that is too true! Email address books, old spiral address books, they are all the same!

For many years I sent out newsletters several times a year for some missionary friends. I would get so many returned, some with forwarding addresses, some with no address found. Let me tell you, it is hard enough keeping up with people I KNOW!

You have such a delightful rhythm to your rhyme. Love it!

Allegro ma non troppo said...

It's fantastic. The syllables are supremely sorted. Banjo would be proud!

Charlie said...

You are awesome. But you probably already knew that. :)

The Accidental Housewife said...

Bloody brilliant, you are!

Janet said...

Love it!!!