She Swims In The Merri Again Poem by Francis Duggan

She comes from the flat and green country the home of the dark pale eyed crow
Near Warrnambool in coastal South West Victoria where the dusky waters of the Merri flow
On to Lake Pertobe to the ocean at a place known as Lady Bay
But far north of the Caramut roadway the years have left her looking gray
One childless in her early seventies she never was anyone's wife
A beautiful woman of brown eyes when in full bloom in the prime of her life
When her hair was as dark as the feathers of the glossy one the pale eyed crow
That often cawed on the tall gum by her old home near where the ageless old Merri does flow
Deep and slowly in the flat coastal paddocks near the City of Warrnambool
In fancy she hear the dark moorhen scream loudly in a deep Merri pool
In the river where she used to swim with her young friends going back six decades ago
The years do seem for to go quickly time does become everyone's foe
Yet she has her beautiful memories and in her mind fresh they remain
And with her young friends in the Summer she swims in the Merri again.