Francis Duggan Poems

Where years ago mine was a familiar face
To many i would be a stranger now in my first home place
And those i knew getting older time does not stand still
In old Claraghatlea in view of Clara Hill
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In Mushera valley they do not have a wailing wall
And few things in life seems to phase them at all
Even when St John's lose in gaelic football
They laugh and sing as they dance in Aubane Hall
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I yearn for a place far away from the town
Far from where people do compete for wealth and renown
Where the babbling creek whose tongue is never still
Winds it's way through the flat lands to the river from the foot of the hill
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I cannot say i ever see Sean Radley for Millstreet playing Hurling or Gaelic football
His gift is in making other people happy perhaps the greatest human gift of all
His thousands of images on the Millstreet Web Site viewed by Duhallow people Worldwide
That he is a living North Cork cultural icon is something of him that cannot be denied
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It is true that rats are not much use at running
But they are creatures born to survive
In dark holes they spend most of their existence
And on scraps of food in rubbish tips they thrive
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So nice to relax in the gentle Spring breeze
Out of the heat of the sun in the shade of the trees
In the blue and sunny sky just a few clouds of gray
In the southern November a beautiful day
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The black and white pied oystercatcher with orange eye rings orange feet and long orange bill
At opening of sea shells for the meat not lacking in skill
She often is seen on the beach with her mate
The father of her young with whom she does copulate
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They feel quite satisfied with the brief sexual fling
The happy go lucky who do their own thing
They drink and make merry without looking for fight
And sing on their way home on a Saturday night
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For our every mistake we have some price to pay
But the best we can do is to live in the day
Since the past it has gone to the forever more
And who knows what the future for us has in store
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Familiar to many of them one might say
These black and white mud nesting birds one does see every day
Known as mudlark or magpie lark or to some as pee wee
They build cup shaped nest of mud on fork of low branch of tree
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