Francis Duggan Poems

Of the garden birds of south eastern Australia among the better known
The new holland honeyeaters have ways of their own
With their long thin bills they live mostly on nectar they collect from the flowers on bushes and trees
In this way they are Nature's pollinators much like honey bees
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In the Moyne Shire on the warmest day of the year
The warbling of a magpie so pleasant to hear
A weather temperature high for the day of forty degrees
And warmth in the sunshine and warmth in the breeze
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What they think of you is not your business anyway
So why give time to worrying of what others of you do say
Today you are the one they choose to criticize
Tomorrow it will be someone else this you should realize
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The old fellow Andy says his neighbor the young beauty Ann
Has designs on him as her fancy man
But with his aging wife Kate he is happy to stay
When it comes to young women some old blokes do get carried away
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He is one of the high country many miles north of the big town
Where the brown creek from the mountain towards the big river travels down
At the start of it's long journey towards the distant ocean shore
The sound of it's familiar babble will live on forever more
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Though financially you are one who is doing it quite tough
Why wish for to die you will be dead long enough
Buy a lotto ticket today your luck may be in
There is a huge jackpot draw tonight it may be your turn to win
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The best you can be is to live and let live
And be broad enough in your mind for to forgive
Anyone who has wronged you in any way
Just leave them to karma for their sins for to pay
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It was not want or hunger that brought me far south
Of the fields of the badger and watewrways of the brown trout
But in search of adventure in the big World out there
The migrant will always be one from elsewhere
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Down the dry and brown paddocks the creek trickling slow
And on a gray gum tree a dark pale eyed crow
Is cawing in the gloam just after sundown
In the countryside between Warrnambool City and Koroit Town
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The financially and materially wealthy many people impress
And are widely lauded as a great success
But why they are admired one must wonder why
Since the Earth that feeds us all they try to destroy
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