An Autumn Night Poem by Francis Duggan

The faint lamp of the moon is shining through the branches of the trees
And the night is calm and pleasant with a very timid breeze
And I hear the crickets chirping in the undergrowth nearby
And around the bright orange Street light the moths in circles fly,
A myriad of stars are twinkling in the calm night sky
Such a thing of Natural beauty is always a thing of joy
And the frogs can be heard singing hidden in the roadside drain
'Tis said that these shy and tiny amphibians always sing before the rain,
The boobook owl is calling mopoke mopoke he cry
A nocturnal bird not seen in daylight and of Humankind quite shy
And the brush tail possums on the gums they snarl as they fight
The biggest possum always win in Nature might is right
And the dogs of the neighbourhood bark intermittently
And in the stillness of the night the rumblings of the sea.