Francis Duggan Poems

Some say old Mattie takes life far too serious
And that on his tongue there is a constant boil
And others who have known him for six decades
Will tell you they have never seen him smile.
...

His puffed up lids around his eyes had closed
And from his pupils shut out light of day
And he could not see me though I stood quite near
Down wind from him less than a yard away.
...

His ancestral home is Java out by the Java sea
And though born in cage his instincts tell him that he should live free
And unlike budgerigar and canary who tame quite easily
The shy sparrow of Java pine in captivity.
...

A morning in September in early early Spring
Above the lush green paddock the air borne skylark sing
Four hundred feet above the ground a small speck in the sky
He soars up to the cloud world to sing he has to fly.
...

He's only five foot six or so he feels he's eight foot tall
And he is still the same old Jeff he hasn't changed at all
He wear short sleeves to show off his tattoos, his gleaming
shaven head
...

He has no taste for alcohol not even a light beer
And she says that he should be named the husband of the year
He changes the baby's nappy and cooks the evening tea
And she feels very happy to have one good as he.
...

Many of his verses tell of his great sadness
The hardships through life he had to endure
He lived in the hungry years of the great famine
And he knew what it was like to be poor.
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In her cup shaped nest of moss and lined with clay
In hedgerow bush and well hidden from view
The song thrush quietly sit and incubate
Her four small eggs with dark spots through the blue.
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She lives in Natimuk a small Town in Victoria
And a few months back she almost was unknown
But since she climbed up to the summit of Mt Everest
The Aussies now have claimed her for their own.
...

Above the scrub by mouth of Powlett river
The small brown lark is singing as he fly
And singing ever singing he is soaring
A small speck in the sunny evening sky.
...