SULTAN PUNJAB

Way up and out on lonely stage
Up in the Kimberley
With no acclaim from audience
Of sightless rocks and trees -

A cast of bushman ride the scene
With grim and keen intent
The drama there - was search and find
The way that Punjab went.

Somewhere, twixt Moonlight and Kurange
Old Sultan missed the track
His thirsty miles then strayed the night
And quickly doubled back.



                                                                           2.

In vain he searched afar for them

This search was doubly vain
As he became completely lost
Within this wild terrain.

No mules he found, where was his camp
Oh! How he wished he knew;
Now water must be quickly found
Where water holes are few.

So with his dog, he wandered
(It kept Sultan in its sights)
Together they would curl for warmth
Throughout the chilling nights.

The straying mules now reappeared

Nearby a mustering camp;
The call went out; A search crew formed
All other duties shrank.


                                                                        3.

Lead by long, lean Jack Campbell

This search would test their skills
To follow fading tracks and signs
Throughout those rugged  hills.

At last, one morn at distance
A telltale sight was seen
A circling flock of kites and crows;
They knew what that could mean.

Three weeks he had been missing
Alas, how well they knew
That he could not be living still
This man aged eighty-two.
                                                                           4.

A feeble bark of dog was heard

From yonder waterway
And there - too weak to rise, but still alive ...
Old Sultan Punjab lay.

Through faithful presence of his dog
The crows could not contrive
To pick the eyes from off his face
While yet he was alive.

Such fortitude is legend
Up in the Kimberley
Such tracking skills are witnessed -
By only rocks and trees.

Clarry Dunstan          
                        
 
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