When I Was In My Twenties Poem by Francis Duggan

When I was in my twenties seems like only yesterday
I thought I'd never grow older my hair would never gray
But our life's prime passes quickly and time keeps ticking on
And now in my early sixties my better years long gone.

The wanderlust was in me I left the old Homeplace
And I might seem a stranger now where mine was a known face
Since I left a generation into adulthood have grown
In Claraghatlea by Millstreet Town where I was once well known.

From that old place in Duhallow I've been so long away
And a stranger in the old Town I well might seem today
Most of those I went to school with I have not seen for years
Yet for my fading memories I do not have any tears.

The Finnow flowing in the old fields to the Blackwater to the sea
Or old Clara in Duhallow I never more may see
There now I might feel a stranger since few would know of me
And a migrant in this Southern Land is all I'll ever be.