Francis Duggan Poems

Down by her woodland cottage the creek it trickles slow
And she lives close to Nature and there's little she doesn't know
About the birds and animals that in the woodland dwell
And even by their call or song each creature she can tell.
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From the snow hills of Mt Baw Baw in your cloak of gray to brown
Through the scrublands and the paddocks and through many country town
All the way through Melbourne City where you back up and move slow
And you travel at a snail's pace as near to the sea you flow.
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The most important to him are I, myself and me
And he feels so 'hard done by' he craves for sympathy
My heart goes out to Richard he doesn't have a mate
But there's a few around the place that he has grown to hate.
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He seldom talks about his past nor pines for what has been
And green hills beyond Toora to him don't sem so green
Down at the pub he socialize though most times he seems shy
And in his heart he'll always be a fresh faced country boy.
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A fellow from the Cork and Kerry border
From the mountain road that leads to the old Paps of Shrone
The mountain air was clean and unpolluted
But there was no gold between the het and stone.
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A long long way from England from her old stomping ground
The gipsy blood is in her she likes to get around
She has a son and husband by duty she is bound
But the place she'd like to live in perhaps she has not found.
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The farmers not too happy and the price of cattle down
And the hills above Wonthaggi are looking dry and brown
And the parched paddocks of Gippsland are crying out for rain
But the forecast for the coming week is warm and dry again.
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The olive backed oriole has a distinct song
You hear him once you ought not get him wrong
His notes don't vary much from day to day
And flute like are the little tunes he play.
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They call him 'John if only' these words he often say
If only I were wealthy I dream about that day
I'd travel all around the world to places far away
But I am just a poor bloke so here I live and stay.
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She grew tired of outback living tired of paddocks flat and brown
And she resolved to move to Sydney live and work in the big Town
The nearest village two miles south east a milk bar and pub with T.A.B.
Surely there was more in Sydney more to do and more to see.
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