In the gutter by the chemist shop, in the straggling light of day
In the torn Kentucky packets, lies a homeless little stray
And he dreams about a cozy spot and air-conditioned heat
While the sun’s first dewy fingers fail to find him on the street
And the honey of excitement when he cut the filial bond
Has been soured by the blankness of the bitter world beyond
The fertile fields of freedom turn to furrows of despair
For the lonely little shopping cart in Biloela Square.
The pale stars leave reluctantly their pastures in the skies
With a bantam rooster crowing taps to mark their slow demise
While a singing in the wires is the loneliness he feels
And the crackle of the gravel under frozen rubber wheels
He shivers in the dew-drops that are clustered on his chrome
And he’s longing for the K-Mart and the comfort of his home;
The sparrows twitter over him as only sparrows dare
On the lonely little shopping cart in Biloela Square.
How he’d shone with gay abandon as he’d trundled down the tar
Full of someone’s goods and groceries for the boot of someone’s car
All the fleeting, bleating chatter of the late-night shopping crowd
All the heady, steady neons that have left him colour-proud
How the spirit of adventure sang in all his nickel veins
As he said goodbye forever to those crowded shopping lanes
He would cast aside their shackles and he wouldn’t even care
Ah! he was the bravest shopping cart in Biloela Square.
But now the scene has altered - there is frost on all his knobs
The slow cars grope their sleepy way to early morning jobs
The stop-start of the milkman and the rattle of his change
Greets the leaden dawn of lightening skies across the Kroombit Range
Now he’s had his fill of wandering and wishes he was back
To the warmth of friendly fellows as they nestle in the stack
And he prays that Bourne the Dentist or Sandy’s Nails and Hair
Will soon find that lonely shopping cart in Biloela square.
Charlee Marshall