Johnny Rags Of Melbourne Town Poem by Francis Duggan

Oft times saw him in the City Johnny rags of Melbourne Town
Up through Bourke street down through Collins always shuffling up and down
Tattered coat and baggy trousers, long grimy hair and worn shoes
He looked thin and he looked worn from long years of drugs or booze.

What age was he? that's good question truly hard for one to say
Could be fifty looked like eighty he had aged before his day
He looked old from self deprivation, from self abuse and sleeping rough
He had taken years off his life and life already short enough.

He sleeps in the railway station on park benches under trees
Wrinkled man with no ambition all he's left are memories
Of when he was young and had ambition long before he reached his prime
Before he became a failure and that's going back a long long time.

See him rummaging through trash bins for what others throw away
Half eaten burgers, tainted pizzas and sandwiches mouldy gray
If you're poor in a big city and feeling down in the mouth
Then nobody wants to know you, you are down and you are out.

I've not seen him for near six weeks wonder where he did get to
Could he be in Vin De Paul house or did he move to pastures new
Or could his bones rest forever in corner of paupers ground?
I don't know of late not seen him and he's not been seen around.