I May Not Be Here Poem by Francis Duggan

I may not be here when the flowers bloom in Spring
And the nesting male songbirds do whistle and sing
Of how long we will live never a guarantee
And what appiles to all too does apply to me.

The beauty of Nature I love and enjoy
And I have loved Nature since I was a boy
In Millstreet in Duhallow where the Finnow to the Blackwater flow
Through many a field and by dyke and hedgerow.

The singing voice of the songbirds one could not get wrong
The tiny brown wren of the hedgerow with the big bird song
In Spring the finches, thrushes, blackbirds and robins they sing at daybreak
And the song of the dunnock one could not mistake.

I may not be here when the Spring comes around
When the swallows return to breed to their home-ground
For there is no guarantee on the human time span
Though I hope to live for as long as I can.