Middleton’s Layabout by James Cayce sketches a station hand whose appetite for drink and opinions far outweighs his usefulness.
Set among shearing sheds, cattle runs and station life, this humorous character piece follows a habitual loafer who never quite earns his keep—or learns to shout a round.
Middleton’s Layabout
By James Cayce
Small bespeckled and bandy
Face of a Brussels Sprout
With more than a hint of the dandy
Middleton’s Layabout
Fond of a noon libation
When he was shearing sheep
Loitered on Middleton’s station
Never earning his keep
One of Middleton’s minions
Little between the ears
Always full of opinions
After too many beers
Spent a year as a drover
Whisky and stout prevailed
Scattered cattle all over
Packed up his swag and bailed
Seems he was still on probation
Suffered from piles and gout
Not much use on a station
Never offered to shout
Always appeared to be randy
Whenever he talked, he’d shout
A little too fond of a brandy
Wholly unlovable lout
Now in different dominions
Where the boss refuses him beers
Still has many opinions
In Hades nobody hears.
Keeping The Verse Alive
Middleton’s Layabout is shared with permission from James Cayce through Keeping The Verse Alive, Country Campfire’s bush poetry preservation project.
By preserving poems like this, we’re helping ensure the stories, humour and characters of country Australia continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.
James Cayce
Bush Poet • Humourist • Storyteller • Parody Writer
James Cayce is the pen name of Zbigniew “Zig” Ignaszak, a bush poet and storyteller whose work blends humour, parody, memory, gratitude and Australian country verse.
Poems, recitals, photographs, stories and original works remain the property of their original creator and are shared by Country Campfire with permission.
