Whatever happened to Johnny Look-Back?

Johnny paced the Earlestown streets
from the Vulcan to the Muckies,
through the Wargrave to the Common
never seen in pubs or bookies.

A long grey mac with shoulders slumped
and hands behind his back,
the kids he passed would scream his name
“Hey Johnny just look back!”

See Johnny Look-Back liked to look
he looked most everyday,
but poor old Johnny’s looking back
for his dog that ran away.

To all the kids it was a laugh
as Johnny crooked his neck,
a broken hearted lonely man
without his man’s best friend.

And then one day we realised
that Johnny had gone too,
but was old Johnny melted down
like his poor old dog for glue?