Old Travelling Shearer

He has done his travelling and the seeds of his genes he has sown Yet his children to him strangers and to them he is not known In an old people's home in his early nineties his travelling days are in the past All he has now are his memories and time on him is ticking fast He walks with a cane's assistance time it has become his foe He is not the man that he was way back in the long ago Worn out from years of living he has had a better day Time is everybody's master youth with anyone does not stay All he has left are the memories of his sweaty days in many a hot shearing shed Most of the shearers he shore with by now would be of the dead So many sheds he has shorn in one who earned his every pay In the life of the travelling shearer many a hard working day Many the hours he spent drinking in many a country town Many the women he slept with but with none he could settle down Other shearers told him he was a father he may now be a great grand dad He looks so fragile and time worn far better days he has had Despite his years of travel and hard work and hard drinking in his nineties he is alive Few like him to such an age manage to survive And though his better days are in the long gone With his battle of survival in life he goes on.