1980

(it was the best of times...)

1980

it was the summer of my seventeenth dole

cheques that is

and I’d gone a year writing

“did not look for work”

on my form

before someone at social security noticed

and asked me what I was doing

why I wasn’t looking for work

and with dumb country boy honesty

I told them

I get 72 bucks a fortnight

I pay 10 bucks board

records are 6.99

brandivino is 2.50 a bottle

I get in the boot to go to the drive-in

I’m living like a king

Who needs to work?

I had to go to Adelaide after that

where I lied about looking for work

saw Kiss in concert

bought my first pair of levis

(dark green corduroy if you don’t mind)

found the deadboys first album

at Coles

saw my first words in print

(Ram magazine annual poll)

before heading home again

none the better at finding work

but much better at lying about it

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