Poem - Jessie Pope

Cobbers

By Jessie Pope

They were “cobbers,” that’s Anzac for chum.

 But it means rather more than we mean –

A friendship that will not succumb,

 Though distance or death intervene.

Adventure, success, and mishap

 In boyhood they’d shared, so no wonder

They jumped at the chance of a scrap

 And booked with the crowd from “down under.”

In a narrow Gallipoli trench

 They chanced upon glimpses of hell,

And a thirst there was nothing to quench

 But a deluging downpour of shell;

Perpetual ridges they took,

 They charged and they cursed and they shouted,

But nothing their recklessness shook

 Till one of the “cobbers” got “outed.”

The other one came back at night,

 Exhausted in body and brain,

And groped round the scene of the fight,

 But sought for his “cobber” in vain.

His spirit was heavy with grief,

 His outlook was sombre and blotted,

But his bayonet brought him relief

 Next, morning— and that’s when he “got it.”

Scene: Midday, Victoria Street,

 An Anzac (in blue) on each side –

A coo-ee, wild, ringing, and sweet –

The taxicabs swerve and divide.

For traffic they don’t care a toss,

 There, right in the middle, they’re meeting;

Stay, let’s draw a curtain across

 Where the two long-lost “cobbers” are greeting.