Scenes in Sydney

Written in 2002.

Well I’m sitting here in downtown Balmain
thought for a moment I was going insane.
Saw a man with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier
he had it in a suitcase with its head sticking out.
He was waiting for a bus,
I’m sure our dogs would feel inferior.
I just looked, I didn’t make a fuss.

I was sitting at a table at an outdoor café
watching people pass and saying g’day,
and there weren’t any flies
but the bullshit’s thick and so are the lies.
The dung beetles must work overtime here.
Had cousin Ben turned-up I’d gone for a beer.
The shop next door sold tarot cards
suppose it helps the living and the dead.
I read a sign in the window that said
they had improved video surveillance.
I thought they were going a bit far
seems they can predict the future
but don’t know who the shop lifters are.

I wandered down into city to the Domain
bloody long walk from the digs in Balmain.
John Pilger was speaking about the war in Iraq
you know he reckons we’re on the wrong track.
He said the war is about Yanks lust for oil
when I heard that it made my blood boil,
seems Australian troops are going die
not, for freedom or justice,
but just another Yank lie.

I know its nice to have a cop on the beat
reckon there should be one in every street.
Heard John Howard say he’s our cop in the Pacific
that was the biggest porky I’ve heard yet.
He couldn’t do it without getting his feet wet.
Hope you’re all well down on the farm,
don’t want to be the one to cause alarm,
but if Australia were to bomb Iraq
reckon they wouldn’t want to see us back.
Probably tell us to stick our wheat
I know what that that’d do to our balance sheet.
So I have decided to put it to the test
I’m staying in Sydney to join the protest.