Ghosts - The Adelaide Gaol Poem by Paul Warren

They put him in the Adelaide Gaol
He had killed the local magistrate on the trail
There had been debts for him to pay
And to pay the bank he lost the farm as it was taken away

He had waited on the Adelaide road that morning
And shot the Magistrate down without a warning
The local constable saddled up and hunted him down
And he captured him and in shackles brought him to town

The hearing went on for two days in the summer heat
Until the trial came to an end and he would the hangman meet
So he languished in the Adelaide Gaol until the dawn
And he was hung on the first light of the morn

So the years have passed away and the Gaol lies empty
The prisoners have gone as the Old Gaol has down its duty
But they say when it's quiet and there is no-one around
He still walks the corridors and cries his judgement down.

© Paul Warren Poetry