Repartee

Last night we dreamed and thought we interviewed --
In manner rude --
A man named Hughes
We said to him, "We'd like to have your views
On politics --
You, with your box of tricks!
Why are you travelling about Australia?
And, inter alia,
Why all this talking to the sugar people?
Why all this shouting from Australia's steeple,
Up near Cape York?
You tork, you TORK!
Up in the north
The news goes forth
That you
Are talking all around the point.  What is your view?"
And it seemed,
As we dreamed,
That Mr Hughes, forgetting what sort of man I really am
Replied, merely,
But very clearly
And unanswerably "Damn!"