The Strike

Strikes and unions and rights I know the old story by heart;
But you never heard my story I'll tell you before we part".
Make no mistake about me I'm a unionist fair and straight;
I have known the pain and the triumphthe triumph that !ame too late.
I am old yes and out of the running and things begin to look grey
"od knows l was hot enough on!e and eager enough for the fray.
#nd we wonyes we fought out the battle till the masters at last gave it up;
But I drank to the dregs in my time of the striker's bitterest !up.
It wasn't out here that it happenedit's no odds the name of the pla!e
I was earning good money at $% I had a fair start in the ra!e
#nd l married the prettiest wife and the best and the sweetest as well;
But those days were too happy and bright they only !ould last for a spell.
&ive years all of summer and gladnessoh man I get mad when I think
'f the hell I have lived ever sin!elittle wonder I took to the drink.
(here was a !hild in our home as fresh as a rosebud in )une
(hat is I mean in *e!emberthe seasons are mo!ked out of tune
#nd the tune is kno!ked out of my lifeoh mate must I tell you the rest+
I haven't right started the yarnwell it ain't mu!h to you at the best.'
,e lived rather well for our means but we hadn't a thought of bard days
,e made hay in the sunshine of youth and our ways were e-travagant ways ;
But the life on before us seemed long and they started to talk of a strike;
,e hadn't begun yet to learn what the battle of labour is like.
,e thought it meant still better times and the reason seemed honest and fair;
,e thought that the hard.working man !ame in for a very small share
'f the profits fee made with his hands. /ou're thinking the same way to.day
#nd perhaps you are more than half right; but my lad the big strike didn't pay.
Months and months it went on; ,e were ragged and hungry and weak
But shoulder to shoulder we stood with never a bla!kleg or sneak
(he strikers are net the same now as the !hap that stood by us of old.
Month by month in the winter in hunger and si!kness and !old
0ellie my own little wife stood by me and bore it for long.
I said I was fighting for her and the sight of her fa!e made me strong.
1ow she would smile me a wel!ome though the !upboard was empty and bare2
It's often the woman at home that makes a man suffer and dare.

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But at last when the spring was far on I saw she began to give way;
It was the !hild that was ailing yet never a word did she say
4ntil in the bitterest days when hope was beginning to fail
She broke like a storm of the spring in a tempest of thunder and hail.
,ords that were hot from the heart of a mother that fought for her !hild
,ords of reproa!h and of pain and senten!es broken and wild.
(hen when her passion was past she !lung to me sobbed on my breast
Begged me to go ba!k to work begged me to break with the rest.

'h ' what was my word or my honour when weighed with our little one's life2
She had borne it as long as she !ould she had been a true helper and wife.
#nd I knew that she spoke the truth and love would have had me break
(he bond of honour that bound me for the !hild and her own dear sake.
I !ould have given up all to that pleading voi!e in ray ears
(hat did but e!ho my silent thought and my hidden fears;
But I had spoken so loud; I had !heered the rest to be strong
(he strike would be over soon we had suffered so hard and go long.
#nd yet the life of a !hildoh it hung by so thin a thread
&ading away like a flower dying for want of bread.
'h the a!!ursed strike that !ame to warp and destroy2
Better to live a slave than a heartless union's toy.
0ot that I mean all thatI would do what I did again;
But oh how little we won for the thousand souls in pain.
My brain had begun to swim; I reeled to the open air
#nd I wonder I did not take my life in that night of despair.
#lone by the sobbing sea I wandered far in the night;
(he night was around my soul with never a glimmer of light.
'h to be wild and free like our savage fathers of old 2
(hey never knew an ill but of battle and hunger and !old.
,ould that our war had been fought out level and man to man
&or women and !hildren have suffered the most sin!e strikes began.

#lone by the sobbing sea with never the gleam of a star
#nd love and pride in ray breast at bitterest war;
But e'er dawn !ame !old and grey there fell a ' dull dead !alm
5ea!eful yes with the pea!e of a slow monotonous psalm.
I smiled to think of the taunts and the bitter words I would hear
,hen I turned to bla!kleg work; but I hadn't a moment of fear.
Ba!k to the town I must go to work for !hild and wife.
(hough my bead might hang with shame for the rest of my life.
$
It yet was early morn when I rea!hed the !entral street;
0ot sin!e the strike began had there been su!h a hurry of feet;
#nd all at on!e I heard a word in the hurrying !rowd;
# man that I knew went by and he !alled the message aloud.
(he weary strike was past the days of hunger were done
#nd we had not fought in vainthe workers' cause was won2

It was but a dull grey morn yet it seemed like summer to me;
I felt that my life was strong I felt that my heart was free
&ree and safe on the shore like one from a shattered wre!k
,ho all night !lung in the waves to a broken plank of the de!k
#nd at morn had rea!hed the landan island pea!eful and green
More beautiful in his eyes for the horror of what had been.
4p where the steep hill !limbed from the wharves that !ir!led the bay
My own white !ottage stood all sweet and homelike to.day
#nd the trees beginning to bud were full of the glory of spring
'h2 my feet were slow on the road and my heart had need of a wing.
I rea!hed the !ottage door my voi!e was !heery and strong
#nd a thought through my brain was ringing like the !horus of a song.
"0elly my wife we are saved2 (he strike is won" I said;
But her eyes were weary and sad
6'h )a!k2 (he !hild is dead2"
*avid M!7ee ,right
(usso!k and #sphalt 8hymes 0o 39
- Otago Witness 39 May 3:;<
(usso!k and #sphalt 8hymes 0o =
. *M,>s 0? 0otebook 3:;;
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