Police - Outback Handyman - Anything Goes Poem by Paul Warren

Just out of town we saw an old Commer van
Being driven by a scraggy unshaven older man
Written across the side in hand written prose
"Outback Handyman - anything goes"

The Commer van was a handy man's dream
With a vice on the bumper and tools in a scheme
Of small drawers with screws and other handy things
All filed away with swag, bolts, nuts and springs

We stopped and spoke to him by the roadside
As he stood there a hand rolled cigarette was fired
With one foot on the front bumper hand on his knee
He gave us his story of his Outback wandering free

With an eye half closed he said he travelled around
On dusty roads finding work where it could be found
I've had a hard life can't you see it in my face
Fixing up things that you couldn't easy replace

He had been doing this for twenty years strong
After finding tent boxing for him couldn't be prolonged
Now with the march of time people weren't so isolated
He could see that his wanderings would be ill-fated

So we left him at that and went back to the car
Whilst he smoked the last of the cigarettes from afar
The last I saw of him was looking around at the sky
Whilst the old Australia disappeared from our eye.

© Paul Warren Poetry