"I'm old <br />Botany Bay; <br />stiff in the joints, <br />little to say. <br /> <br />I am he <br />who paved the way, <br />that you might walk <br />at your ease to-day; <br /> <br />I was the conscript <br />sent to hell <br />to make in the desert <br />the living well; <br /> <br />I bore the heat, <br />I blazed the track- <br />furrowed and bloody <br />upon my back. <br /> <br />I split the rock; <br />I felled the tree: <br />The nation was- <br />Because of me! <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Old Botany Bay <br />Taking the sun <br />from day to day... <br />shame on the mouth <br />that would deny <br />the knotted hands <br />that set us high!<br /><br />Dame Mary Gilmore<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/old-botany-bay/
