Francis Duggan Poems

We left old Melbourne City in the darkness
And the northbound train stopped at each rural town
And a gray dawn broke as we neared outer Sydney
This Land now green has often been so brown.
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Somethings from childhood till old age remain
And old Joe returns to his youth again
By stream between the hedgerow and the old dirt track
He often stood and watched the stickleback.
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The oak tree forlorn and leafless and the day is cold and gray
But through the earth young buds are peeping Spring cannot be far away
And the spotted dove is cooing making known his territory
And any time of year in Nature wondrous things to hear and see.
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Old Mary Sue who lives by the rail crossing
She will be seventy on her next birthday
In her hair she doesn't use tints dyes or colours
And she is not ashamed to show her gray.
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Where I came from accomplishment means power of money
Unless of course you've known sporting success
And things are much the same here in Australia
If you are poor others you won't impress.
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He talks about his days of wine and roses
When he was the man young women wished to know
And of the many women he made love to
When he was twenty two decades ago.
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We've sat listening all the evening to those oft sung melodies
And if you feel like singing mister sing us Songs of Sherbrooke please
Sing us Songs of Sherbrooke mister and let us hear the mountain breeze
Soughing softly in Kallista in those majestic gum trees.
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Don't tell me that all men are equal and that all women are equal to men
Since I can only see inequality in a World of corruption and sin
The poor seem to be getting poorer and far too many in poverty
And the wealthy are getting far wealthier that's how it would appear to me.
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With stooped shoulders and hair more white than gray
She shuffles to the milk bar every day
And nod her head in greeting say hello
To those she know or feel that she may know.
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The Queensland sun shines early in the morning
And keeps on burning hotter through the day
And though the Parklands watered by the sprinklers
Through the pale green patches of brown through gray.
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