Francis Duggan Poems

She sits at home watching T.V. silver haired Maud Van Heer
And Jack her husband in the pub with his mates drinking beer
And talking of politics and sports and how the game was won
It is a strange world after all when all is said and done.
...

The rhododendrons flowering in the garden
The willy wagtail sing on wattle tree
But lovesick Johnny feeling so unhappy
He pines for love that never was to be.
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I visited the cottage of a poet
In the Wimmera Mallee Town of Nhill
A poor rural bard who led a simple life
But whose verses are as fresh as ever still.
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Now don't you knock the greenies man you know not what you say
For this would be a concrete World if developers had their way
But greenies slow them in their tracks and as greenie protest grow
The wheels of the developer through Planet Earth move slow.
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The roar of the traffic that buzz to and fro
And the noise of the car horns how shrilly they blow
And from the factory chimneys smoke darken the skies
In sprawling Suburbia polluted by noise.
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I stood and watched them for a half an hour or more
As they flew from their nest on wattle tree to forest floor
And back again to nest with food in bill
To feed their young the insects they did kill.
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The waves rushing on to the sandy brown shore
And the high rolling surf against the rocks roar
And sooty oystercatchers take to the sky
And over the choppy sea pipe as they fly.
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It's now part of the social scene the social in trend
That middle class woman should say to her friend
Come over to my house for 'nibbles and tea'
A posh sort of saying as posh as can be.
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Long years ago when I was young and attending Primary school
To love the hymns of love and peace I must have been a fool
My favourite hymn 'Pray for the wanderer' I sang it every day
But now I don't have a God as such for to sing hymns to or pray.
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In the sandpit field we often watched in the afternoon of sunday
Our renowned juggler Matty Owen give his juggling display
We marvelled at his dexterity how wonderful we cried
But we could never juggle with stones though hard enough we tried.
...