By The Torrens River Poem by Francis Duggan

The tourist cruiser touring up and down
Through Torrens river along by Adelaide town
Through parklands that the sprinklers have kept green
Though where water missed brown patches to be seen.

The black swans of these waterways are tame
I lay by tree and up to me they came
And one of them she nibbled on my feet
Till she decided I was not to eat.

Even the black ducks too showed little fear
I even touched one she had come that near
They like the swans expecting chips or bread
By human hand they often had been fed.

The silver gulls pant in the heat of day
From picknickers they are never far away
They noise and squabble over scraps of food
And to each other they seem very rude.

In the cool shade of poplar tree I lay
By Adelaide Town on humid Summer day
In green parkland by river dark to brown
And tourist cruiser cruising up and down.