I rode a shopping trolley

To home from down the street

I rode that shopping trolley

I pushed it with my feet.

Laden with no groceries

Just old lettuce leaf and soil,

I pushed that shopping trolley so

My speed was on the boil.

The wobbly wheels, wobbled and spun

So faster and faster I’d travel

O’er paths and cobblestones

‘Til the plan it did unravel.

Through the intersection give-way sign

I flew with a comet’s speed

Then I knew, with some concern

That breaks, this trolley did need.

Too fast was I now, too far gone,

By-standers saw only a blur

And all that I did to slow it down

Velocity did deter.

Down hill I sped past driveways

Travelling the speed of light

Past doorstops and letterboxes

Past sunset, into the night

And on for some many miles

Maybe to the world’s last edge

If it wasn’t for a badly parked Datsun

And a very badly cut hedge.

The trolley and the Datsun

Came together in vehicular embrace

And I fell across in that garden hedge

And landed on my face.