ORIGINAL POETRY.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 16 June 1920, Page 3

ORIGINAL POETRY.

BATAVIA. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat. In a bath of score-bins sun; Sweat, Sweat. Sweat, Till your cooked and overdone. Shed off your vest and shi.'l. Sweating beneath your skin In Batavia’s shine and flirt. Like a lost soul steeped in sin. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat, From night, till early morn Sweat, Sweat, Sweat. Till you curse the day you’re born. Groaning bc-neatli the moon. Dreading the rise of sun, All in n sweaty swoon. Longing to cut and run. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat. From soles of feet to head,. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat, All naked on vour bed. Mosquito curtains drawn, Gasping for God’s fresh air. Losing your muscle and brawn. Between a curse and a prayer. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat. As you loathe the things you eat. Sweat, Sweat. Sweat, At the thought of This tern meat — Hashes and collops galore. Cooked to a nameless dish — While you sweat at every port And long for a Jlnunder fish. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat. Like a fireman at hi.- toil; Sweat, Sweat. Sweat. Till your blood begins to boil; Thinking yourself in hell. Calling Otaki’s beach. Where breaker? rise and swell, Alas, so far from reach. Sweat, Sweat, Sweat, For the crystal waters clear; Sweat, Sweat. Sweat, Though lost to memory dear. Where Zealand’s crested wave. Will wash our sweaty skins. And from heated temples bathe All trace of Eastern sins.