The Old Shearer Ed

He has drunk in pubs in many a town
And on many a country roadway he has driven up and down
In his prime years the gun shearer in many an outback shearing shed
His best years long behind him the old ex gun shearer Ed

A man who has had many lovers but never had a wife
And he cannot say if to any children he has helped to give life
But of his many brief sexual flings he has many stories to tell
That if published in book form would sell rather well

Tall and broad shouldered and brown haired in his physical prime
Though this is going back some five decades in time
In his late eighties balding and grey
He clearly has known of a far better day

One who coped with the hardest work and when put to the test
In shearing competitions at bush town shows he always came out best
But going back the Seasons this was long ago
And time that ages everyone has become his foe

In the nursing home he spends his days in a wheelchair
But you never hear him say that life is unfair
In his prime years the gun shearer in amany a shearing shed
But time has caught up on the old shearer Ed.