Old Joe The Ex Shearer Poem by Francis Duggan

Old Joe the ex shearer his hair silver gray
One who surely has known a far better day
In shearing sheds on the east side of the great Southern Land
Respect as a shearer he used to command

But this is going back a few decades ago
And time is beginning to tell on old Joe
In the pub he tells of his travels and shearing days going back in time
To when he was a mighty man in his life's prime

In a brief sexual affair he did father a son
Who is now a middle aged father he is forty one
His son and grandchildren he seldom does see
Not the family sort is how he seems to be

In his early eighties the man who has lived in and worked in many a place
The wrinkles of time on his craggy face
He was a gun shearer many decades ago
But all he has now are memories the old shearer Joe.