Francis Duggan Poems

To raise a wildborn animals from a baby is not an easy job
You need only ask Steve and Annie Durie they raised orphan wombat Bob
Found in his car victim mother's pouch by the highway hungry but still alive
A miracle of Nature her death he did survive.
...

Don't talk to me of this life hereafter although of such you seem convinced you know
I feel we are like flowers of Spring and Summer we grow and we bloom and we go
Into the nothingness of nothing although we leave our seeds behind
Our lives only based on survival and the survival of our own kind.
...

It grows in paddocks all around Australia
And blooms in mid Spring in the sun and rain
And Aussie farmers hate it with a vengeance
'Paterson's Curse or alias Salvation Jane'.
...

It's been years don't know how long nor i'll not lie
And that's going back to when i was a boy
When last i saw the wandering bird lapwing
One cold and windy day in early Spring.
...

It's been more than twelve years so they tell me since the flames of death passed through
Since the fire that caused destruction burnt it's way through Cockatoo
Lives were lost and houses burnt down blackened miles of countryside
And people wept for lost possessions for their life time work destroyed.
...

The goldcrests come into the farmyard in Winter
When woods are bare and frosted fields are gray
And around the dung heap search for tiny insects
With feathers fluffed to keep the cold away.
...

The cootamundra wattle the commonest of trees
They sucker all around the place and multiply like bees
In scrubland and steep gullies, in paddocks brown and bare
And in urban parks and gardens, you see them everywhere.
...

The times are a changing as Bob Dylan said
And the good days behind us and tough times ahead
The climate is changing the economy is not doing well
And what of the future can anyone tell
...

Live every day as if it is your last day and one day you'll be right
As that is as sure as the day follows night
The poor they can laugh as well as dance and sing
And death is far greater than the queen or the king
...

They plan the deaths of and murder people they do not even know
Which causes me for to wonder how this can be so
In their own sick minds they write their own laws
Is Humanity not considered in their political cause
...