Francis Duggan Poems

Today has not been a good day for me things for me have not been going right
I feel like one pushing a barrow of concrete up a very steep height
The weight of the World is on my shoulders at least that is how it does feel anyway
But with hope i do look to tomorrow as tomorrow is a brand new day
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In the twilight of the evening just half an hour before nightfall
The long billed corellas high on the gum trees on their roosting branches do call
On the fourteenth day of the Autumn with an Autumnal coolness in the breeze
I do like these cool and fresh evenings with a high of under twenty degrees.
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Have you ever without reason suddenly burst into tears
Michael Moss is one like that i know i have known him for a few years
For his wife Nell and their only child Joe they died ten years ago
And without seemingly any reason I've seen tears from his eyes flow.
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Some people don't grow wiser they only do grow old
They lack true human feelings at heart they are quite cold
Yet the majority with age mellow and learn of empathy
And the goodness in other people even those they do not like much see,
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Many of those who fought for freedom they died so very young
Their lives 'twould seem were wasted though their praises are sung
Yes 'twould seem their lives were wasted alas they died in vain
For even in democratic Countries many aspects of lack of freedom do remain
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Those who are cruel to animals to humans too will be cruel
To the callousness in them it can be the fuel
Those who beat their dog another person too can beat
Though sooner or later their come uppance they meet.
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Their beauty sad to say will not last long a few days to live that is all
The white butterflies in the garden on this warm day in the Fall
So little time in their bloom of beauty to mate and lay their eggs and to fly
Around the wildflowers and the flowering bushes when the sun shines bright in the sky
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Back there by the old Finnow river the pink breasted male chaffinch sing
And the white breasted dipper sings in the rapids and the first wildflowers of the Spring
Are blooming by the hedgerows and in the sheltered places and new leaves sprout on the deciduous trees
And the old fields becoming much greener and the Wintery chill has left the breeze
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Of course there is always Powerball a nine million to one chance of a division one win
And though the odds may be stacked against you for to win you have got to be in
And the battling woman has a ticket for the jacxpot draw on thursday night
And if she is the lucky big winner she will celebrate until daylight,
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It is a changed Ireland the Ireland of today
Going by what i do read and of it what others say
For it has been two decades since I've seen Erin's shore
And heard the birds singing in old Claramore.
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