Francis Duggan Poems

Michael Cleary was a man from Murphy's Terrace
The eldest one of a big family
The beloved son of Matt and Mrs Cleary
But he died in his prime and tragically.
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The darkening rain clouds gather across the morning sky
And skylark leaves the bracken and upwards as he fly
Soaring he keeps singing till in clouds he disappear
The bird is now invisible but his music I can hear.
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He stood by us when mum this life departed and we always had great respect for dad
To my siblings and I he was a role model the best role model that I've ever had
And if there's a heaven he is surely up there and I fancy that he often still looks down
On those green old fields he often used to work in at Claraghatlea just west of Millstreet Town.
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I wish you'd only tell me that I look old and gray
That I am one of those blokes who has seen a better day
With a big smirk upon your face you say how young I look
To lie to you comes easy but I read you like a book.
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If you climb six steps of eighteen step ladder you don't have that far to fall
And you won't know great disappointment if your dreams are only small
And those who scaled the heights of success had to climb up all of the way
And many who have reached the summit at the summit could not stay.
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I come from a rural and working class background
Though in that group some feel I don't belong
And the literary dons shun me as a poetaster
Somewhere in life I must have got it wrong.
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Old digger Luke is feeling down and I often hear him say
It would not worry me at all were I to die today
Why should I fear the grim reaper after all I've been through
Since I fought in the trenches in Europe in World War 2.
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St Peter spoke he said to me ah well
So you are one of those who wrote all doggerel
Old Satan is tolling damnation's bell
You take the road downhill it leads to hell.
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A celebrity his is a very great name
But he says for lost youth he would gladly swap his fame
But the clock on his life it keeps ticking away
And the reaper on him will have the final say
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Our nephew Thomas Duggan died at twenty three
And he is one I'll never meet or see
For he is one i never met before
And he is at rest now forever more
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