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.
Grant Fenton: Adelaide 1999
Copyright © 2017 Grant Fenton – All Rights Reserved
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