Cloudy May Morning In Coolikerane Poem by Francis Duggan

The darkening rain clouds gather across the morning sky
And skylark leaves the bracken and upwards as he fly
Soaring he keeps singing till in clouds he disappear
The bird is now invisible but his music I can hear.

Old Clara's summit covered in cloak of foggy gray
And the steel cross that stands on top of him one cannot see today
And curlew he is piping he doesn't sound far away
To Coolikerane bogland he come in latter May.

The lowing of a lone heifer the only heavy sound
And smoke from cottage chimney goes curling towards the ground
An old woman once told me back in a by gone year
That whenever smoke curls downward then rain is very near.

I worked in Coolikerane bogland when I was school going boy
On sunny days in early June the lark piped in the sky
The shlaun man shlauned the soggy brown peat we spread it around to dry
But none work in this bog today time change as years go by.

The shlaun man just a memory but the skylark's song remain
And smoke that curls downward can only promise rain
And old Clara's summit covered in cloak of foggy gray
And the curlew's pleasant fluting doesn't seem so far away.