down by the river
a public house once stood
it attracted a clientele
from the town's neighborhoods

the oversees and laborers
would whet their whistles
after a big day working
amid the scrub and the saffron thistles

on the afternoon
of September ninth 1932
in the pub's kitchen
a fire did brew

the flue of the Metters stove
caught alight
which made the cook
scream in fright

from the bar the proprietor
ran at speed
to bucket water
on the flame's greed

town's folk tuned up
with hessian bags
to stub out the embers
that were raging in the building's rags

but their efforts to contain
the fire were all in vain
the watering hole was consumed
by the fast pace of the flammable bane

at the rear of the pub
a charred body was found
he'd not escaped
the flares which did surround

the itinerant bur cutter's
ghost loitered at the pub's site for many a year
he'd appear on nights
when the skies were darkened in drear

the fire at the drinker's establishment
is still spoken of in town
that fateful day the hotel's stove
burnt the drinker's house down