The Bricklayer's Prayer by Anon An Artist in Burnt Clay ( A Bricklayer)
If I had my pick,
I'd elect to lay brick,
in a grove on a tropical isle,
where the OOAH Birds sing
I'd build piers for the King
and I'd line the Queen's chimney with tile!
For help I'd use monkeys from the coconut trunks
and I'd teach them to carry the hod.
They could sleep in the huts where the natives store nuts
and the fish which they offer their God!
For lunch I'd eat fruit with a boar head to boot
and some pie and a drink from a cask.
Then I'd sit back entranced
while the Hula Girls danced
'til it were time to go back to my task.
I'd work like a horse
striking up every course,
'til dusk, then I'd sleep on soft turf.
At the first break of day I'd be up and away
for a plunge in the murmuring surf!
Oh! it's all a fond dream,
this existence supreme,
this life full of sunshine and smile
But it would be quite a trick,
if a guy could lay a brick,
in a grove on a Tropical Isle!
The Building Boom! by A N Other With apologies to another Bricky!
When a "building boom" has just begun,
the work goes in the summer sun.
The bricklayers work like "men gone mad"
and play cards in the cabin,
when the weather is bad.
They foolishly throw their money away,
instead of providing for a rainy day.
And so it goes on, year after year,
they've seldom got a penny to spare.
Then all of a sudden
like a new day dawning
the slump just comes
without any warning
The bricklayers then go "on the dole"
when they should have a big bankroll.
When the dole has gone they live on food like 'rubber'
which they get in that 'mansion' that is known as the 'grubber'.
For such "ferrocious animals" it is a deserving doom,
they're merely existing until the next boom!