Francis Duggan Poems

Where many do live for local renown
The ageing fringe dweller in the old country town
Has never played football with the local club
And always drinks on his own when he is in the pub.
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Immortality for any human being is surely a lie
The longer we live the sooner we die
There is a last night and last day for us all
To the scythe of the Reaper we eventually must fall
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Though little about Nature I can claim to know
I can distinguish a currawong from a crow
And I can tell a wallaby from a kangaroo
Or a rosella or lorikeet from a cockatoo
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In the fields by the Sullane that flows through Macroom
The wildflowers of Nature are now in full bloom
And the ageing migrant remembers today
The place where he lived in as a boy near a town far away.
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The longest human life in time is not a long span
On average a few years more for a woman than 'tis for a man
Three score and ten years the average lifetime time span we are told
The World's oldest human being in time not very old
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You say your God is great and him you do revere
If this be so then him why do you fear
So much that on his behalf you do wish on others ill
And for fear of him you would not hesitate to kill.
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Of life I know there's little that I do know
I've learned that one might say the hard way
But spiritually we should not cease to grow
And from the 'Book of life' a lesson every day.
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The God I love happens to be a she
Her beauty is in every bush and tree
The Goddess of the World the land and sea
The one not destined for mortality
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With her very sore right foot one could not help but feel sorry for the poor little thing
How will she cope at her breeding time in the early Spring
Building her cup shaped nest of mud on fork of branch of tree
And her partner too lame though not as lame as she
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Amazing to watch them in unison turn as they fly
And their flocks seem to grow bigger as the years go by
Mostly dark with a purply sheen when seen in the sunlight
The starlings to many are a familiar sight
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