Edward Kelly and Aaron Sherritt

[Stephen Whiteside]

Edward Kelly and Aaron Sherritt

© Stephen Whiteside 04.10.2012

Edward Kelly and Aaron Sherritt both were the toughest of very tough men.
They slept in their shirts through the winter’s cold again and again and again and again.
Their fingers blanched and their toes went blue,
And the deep cold coursed their whole bodies through,
And the temperature dropped below thirty two,
But it mattered to them not a jot.

Edward Kelly and Aaron Sherritt once hung out as good mates and friends;
Both pals of Joe, but it all turned bad, in the course of a lifetime’s twists and bends.
Aaron agreed to work as a spy
For Detective Ward, and he promised to try
To locate the Kelly Gang by and by,
And bring them all to their doom.

Edward Kelly and Aaron Sherritt died when they both were not much more than boys.
They played a part in an epic grand, with a very explosive box of toys.
Ned was hanged, and Aaron was shot
As part of the Kelly Gang’s gruesome plot
To lure the cops to a special spot
Where the rails had been torn up.

Edward Kelly and Aaron Sherritt are now a part of our bright folklore;
They’ll not be forgotten. They’ll stay in our minds, though I should live to a hundred and four;
But if the choosing were left to me -
A short life of notoriety,
Or a long, sweet life of sobriety,
I know which way I’d jump.