Francis Duggan Poems

A male scarlet robin on lower branch of tree
In the wood-land not many as pretty as he
With dark head and dark back and scarlet red breast
Lovely to look at but as a songster not one of the best.
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Why tell me what is right from what is wrong
Or to what groups I should or should not belong
To since I am one who can make up my own mind
On how I should live my own way through life I find
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At times during the night they make a lot of noise
Above my bedroom on the galvanize
The males engaged in a territorial fight
They hiss and growl as each other they claw and bite
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The boys and girls I grew up with I may not see again
Quite young in my memory they ever remain
But I may not know them now were we to meet
We'd pass by as strangers on the big Town street
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Deceased in name only our deceased friends not gone
From us forever in our memories they live on
As long as the faculty of memory we retain
Our departed friends not truly deceased with us they remain
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I know that climate change is for real not an environmentalist lie
One of Western Victoria's largest lakes Lake Bolac is almost dry
Perhaps down to twenty per cent of capacity and dwindling by the day
The remaining water in it from the original lake shore now does seem far away.
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In the old graveyard in Millstreet Town Paddy McSweeney's remains lay
He truly was a gentleman in every sort of way
An old citizen of Church Street and a very well liked man
As human life it does go his was a lengthy span.
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We hear of and read of earthquakes, huge winds and huge floodings in the newspapers and on the radio each day
And climate change is for real and happening despite what the sceptics do say
The more money you have in such a case the more that you do stand for to lose
To none the Nature Goddess is subservient her own ways she always does choose
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Every day for eight hours or maybe more
He walks up and down through the car park by the big food store
On the lookout for unreturned shopping trolleys for each one he returns a dollar is his pay
The most he might earn would be thirty dollars a day.
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In Cafe Saltwater overlooking the sea
You will see her there every day around three
Enjoying her cappucino she sits on her own
As one of great beauty she used to be known.
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