Now I'm Easy

"NOW I'M EASY" - Eric Bogle For nearly sixty years, I've been a Cockie Of droughts and fires and floods I've lived through plenty This country's dust and mud have seen my tears and blood But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy I married a fine girl when I was twenty But she died in giving birth when she was thirty No flying doctor then, just a gentle old black 'gin But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy She left me with two sons and a daughter On a bone-dry farm whose soil cried out for water So my care was rough and ready, but they grew up fine and steady But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy My daughter married young, and went her own way My sons lie buried by the Burma Railway So on this land I've made me home, I've carried on alone But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy City folks these days despise the Cockie Say with subsidies and dole, we've had it easy But there's no drought or starving stock on a sewered suburban block But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy For nearly sixty years, I've been a Cockie Of droughts and fires and floods, I've lived through plenty This country's dust and mud, have seen my tears and blood But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy And now I'm easy Cockie: Australian small-scale family farmer 'Gin ("Jen"): an Australian aboriginal woman (The term is nowadays considered to be derogatory)