Snowy Joe

He left the Snowy Mountains when he had turned nineteen And in thirty years of travelling some strange things he has seen And in this vast southern Country he has wandered up and down And three months for him a long stay in any place or town. Some three decades of travelling yet never unemployed Though the years are catching up on him and time not on his side And the passing Seasons have left their mark on him, his hair is silver gray And he is not the man he was on his long gone prime day. Yes he is not the man he was when he was in his prime For even the strongest and fittest have to bow to father time He once had a woman in every town though that now seems long ago And for women he has lost his appeal the ageing Snowy Joe. He has worked in the hardest of jobs worked with a travelling pipe laying crew And shorn sheep up further north and worked as a jackeroo And he has worked in city building sites from Darwin to Ballarat And one might say of Snowy Joe that he has been there and done that. He has fathered a son of which he is aware of though in his upbringing no part did play And if he met him on the street him he would not know today He last see him as a six months old twenty five years ago last July Another played the father role and helped to raise the boy. An ageing fellow Snowy Joe the years have left him gray But the wanderlust is still with him and from him will not go away And he will be travelling up and down across the big Country Until the reaper claims him whenever that will be.