In the lounge bar of Wonthaggi's Whalebone Hotel
The story of his life to me he told
A gray haired man and one who had worked hard
And hard work even make young man look old.

He worked up in the Snowy mountain hills
Tunnelling through the hard rock and the earth and clay
And that was more than twenty years ago
And he was over fifty then he say.

His wife she left him for another man
And that was many, many years ago
She took with her their little boy and girl
And to where they went to live he still doesn't know.

She left with the children whilst he was at work
And he came home to find that they had gone
For months he bordered on the suicide brink
'Til he plucked up the strength to battle on.

He'd love to meet his son and daughter now
And perhaps he has got grandchildren somewhere
He last saw them when they were eight and nine
His boy was blond and his girl had light brown hair.

He talked about that Country far away
Where he was born in nineteen twenty two
A peaceful land 'til Hitler came to power
Was the prosperous pre war Germany he knew.

He left his homeland before world war two
Before the world's greatest war began
And he feels happy now that he played no part
In the most shameful event in the history of man.

An old German man who had never fought in war
But he has suffered as much as anyone
And his one wish now in his twilight years
To meet again his daughter and his son.

In the lounge bar of Wonthaggi's Whalebone Hotel
His life story he did relate to me
And though he's lived for fifty years in Australia
His accent still belong to Germany.

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-story-of-his-life-to-me-he-told/