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POOR FELLOW MY COUNTRY
Words and music by Lachlan Irvine
[C][Bm][Am][D7]/[G]///
[G] See the trees and the grass, see how [C] brightly they blaze,
See the [G] smoke black out the sun like it's the [D] end of days;
Like we've [G] mistreated the land in [Em] one too many ways,
And I [C] shake my [Bm] head and [Am] say [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
See the [G] creatures of the bush, see the [C] birds of the sky,
They've got [G] no place left to run and there's [D] nowhere to fly;
Their [G] habitat is shrinking and they [Em] don't know why,
And I [C] shake my [Bm] head and [Am] say [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
See the [G] dry sandy bed of the [C] river as it dies,
See the [G] piles of rotting fish with their [D] blank, staring eyes;
As the [G] precious water's taken for com-[Em]-mercial enterprise,
And I [C] shake my [Bm] head and [Am] say [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
See the [G] face of the farmer, see the [C] dust and the tears,
He's [G] facing a future filled with [D] doubt and with fears;
On the [G] land that fed his family for [Em] so many years,
See him [C] shake his [Bm] head and [Am] say [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
See the [G] ancient custodians and pro-[C]-tectors of the land,
Where [G] song lines are marked by their [D] ancestors' hands;
It's the [G] disrespect of nature that they [Em] can't understand
And they [C] hang their [Bm] heads and [Am] cry [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
It's the [G] country I love, it's the [C] land of my birth,
There's no [G] place I'd rather be on the [D] face of the earth
But the [G] buyers and the sellers only [Em] ask what is it worth?
And I just [C] shake my [Bm] head and I [Am] say [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
Yes, I [C] shake my [Bm] head and [Am] say [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
And I [C] bow my [Bm] head and [Am] pray [D7]
Poor fellow my [G] country!
[C][Bm][Am][D7]/[G]
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I wrote this song when the long-standing drought and the drying of the Darling River in 2019 were followed by a national bushfire
disaster. I used the title of Xavier Herbert's great Australian novel, which in turn was a cleaned-up version of an old Aboriginal
lament, "poor bugger me."
To hear my home-made recording of this song, go to:
POOR FELLOW MY COUNTRY
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