Printer-friendly version“ I’ll Have A Cup Of Tea ! ”
We’d barely turned the engines off when Bob was heard to say,
“You’d better get the billy on, it’s near that time of day;
When all things stop to brew some tea and wash away your cares.”
You see, before I pitch my tent or do most any thing,
I like to have a cup of tea and let my inners sing.
I looked around and eyed the scene, the one that Bob could too,
And wondered if the man was blind and couldn’t see the view.
The fact that we were in the bush and had left our cares behind,
Was probably the furthest thing that occupied Bob’s mind.
He needed to partake of tea; his tone was not urbane,
I’d better rummage through my boot and find my old Butane.
So, after that Butane I went and in my car I dug,
On went Jazzman Len Barnard while Bob searched for his mug.
The billy took no time to boil and Bob was duly pleased,
His urgent need for steaming tea had surely been appeased.
Perhaps now we might get some work out of the sated Bob,
He’d hate to have to cop the wrath of a very angry mob!
Time to pitch the dining fly, and soon we all could see,
Bob had it up in record time, “I’ll have a cup of tea!”
So underneath the crooked fly the screaming kettle went,
It had barely yet been given time to cool its smarting vent.
At thirty-something in the shade and forty on the ground,
You’d wonder why hot cups of tea should need to be around.
But, that makes two, and counting now and as I’ll soon attest,
We’ll have to go to bed real soon just to give the stove a rest.
What time will all the gang arrive? Some said, very late,
“I’ll have a cup of tea!” Said Bob, “To help me stay awake.”
So promptly went the billy on to boil up the tea,
I’ve seen nothing like it, now,” Good grief Bob, that makes three!”
“I’ve never known a time,” said Bob, “when tea could not be had,”
“I happen to be fond of tea, and I don’t think it’s bad.”
“I’ve prepared a nice hot curry, Bob for us to have for dinner,”
“And with this chilled white wine I’ve brought, I think we’re on a winner!”
“That all sounds very nice,” said Bob “and the wine sounds fine to me,”
“But, if it’s all the same to you, I’ll have a cup of tea.”
“It really doesn’t matter if the food is cold or hot,”
“Or if you’ve brought some chilled white wine, or nice red wine, or not.”
“I’d just as sooner have my tea than any other drink,”
“I don’t have to make a choice or even have to think.”
“So, hurry up and get it on, you’re wasting precious time,”
“For if you boil the billy up you’ll be a friend of mine.
Alan Ellis
