Perhaps I'D Feel A Stranger Now Poem by Francis Duggan

Perhaps I'd feel a stranger now back home near Millstreet Town
And even those that I grew up with may look me up and down
And yet not recognize me I look older and balder and gray
From the one that they once knew time leaves us all looking that way.

By the fields of Claraghatlea North when I was in my life's prime
As a young man of twenty seven I was first inspired to rhyme
But on looking back the Seasons that now seems long ago
And many changes since then where the Finnow waters flow.

On down to the Blackwater on it's journey to the sea
The bigger World out there was ever beckoning me
I left old Claraghatlea North for the sunny southern shore
Where the stream goes babbling downland from the heights of Claramore.

From those old fields by Clara hill I've been so long away
And perhaps I'd feel a stranger in Millstreet Town today
Yet the distinctive song of the chaffinch I fancy I can hear
When the fields are full of wildflowers in the Springtime of the year.