Francis Duggan Poems

Respect the first Australians as you would like them to respect you
And sadly respect to them is overdue
Their ancestorshave lived in Australia for thousands of years
Instead of happiness the arrival of Cook and his sailors only brought them suffering and tears
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You do give to others the respect they are due
And to your higher self you try to live as true
And you do treat others as you would like them to treat you
To live as a good person your best you always do
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In the fields of the rook and the silver backed crow
Brown flood waters bank high where the Blackwater flow
In late December in Duhallow in weather threatening to snow
Cold wintery wind from the Boggeraghs blow
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In a paddock in Illowa six young emus with their dad
In his role as a sole parent he is not doing bad
He brooded the eggs and now raise the young on his own
Apart from their egg laying any help from the females to raise the young he has not known
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In the Moyne Shire it is such a beautiful day
In the blue sunny sky just a few clouds of gray
A weather high for the day of a pleasant twenty two degrees
And the warmair full of the buzzing of bush flies and bees
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Why so many people wish to live in Australia one can understand
It is such a big and a beautiful Land
Home to wattle, pittosporum and eucalypt tree
In the great southern Country no shortage of beauty to see
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Here on the high ground of the Cairn Nature's beauty is all around me
Green interspersed with brown coastal country as far as the naked eyes can see
Beyond the sandhills of the Cuttings where the ocean meets the shore
Our lives can be numbered in minutes Nature is forever more
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As some men grow older they do not grow wise
A fact of life many i am sure does realize
The ageing sugar daddy he dyes his hair brown
One of the materially wealthier older men of the town
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The past it has gone only the memories does remain
Of the what used to be but cannot be again
That we learn as we live it does seem this way
And we learn something new from life every day
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A true rhymer never does run out of rhyme
Though eventually she or he runs out of time
Long after their best mental and physical years have gone
The writers of rhyme they does keep rhyming on
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