Francis Duggan Poems

Along the war Avenue of Honour a plaque to a dead soldier nailed to every tree
Brave young men who died in battle their reward for their bravery
They died in the war said to end all wars in the killing fields of World war one
But many wars since and far too many bloody battles and peace in the World not yet won.
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It's been a long dry Summer and it's been a dry Fall
And the water reservior almost empty and the old bloke recall
That in seventy years of living he has not known it so dry
And he has seen many a Season since he was a boy.
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Of battles won and noble soldiers you hear the old balladeer sing
But war only brings death and suffering and war never solves anything
And the mental scars of war keep festering long after the battle does end
You badly injure or kill someone's loved one that person will not be your friend.
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Young Thomas is eleven and to his mum he often say
I'll climb to the top of Mt Everest you'll be proud of me one day,
You will say that's my son Thomas there is none so great as he
He has made world news headlines and is often seen on the t v.
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I often sat upon the dunce's stool
In the class room in Millstreet Town Primary school
My parents they could not feel proud of me
I was not the type of boy they wished me for to be.
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Her son Denjoe will be thirty four on the eve of St Patrick's Day
And it makes me feel that I am old his mother Noreen say
But Noreen Murphy got it wrong and with her I don't agree
As in a recently taken photograph she looks quite young to me.
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The Peace Women drum on their peace drums in hope that the war men may hear
The war men who wage war on others the influential bullies who live far from here
The bullies who wage their so called war on terror who themselves are responsible for brutal acts of shame
Yet the bombing and murdering continues despite the blame and counter blame.
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He was long dead and buried before I saw light of day
And an all time boxing legend so the boxing scribes say
He fought the best of his time Gene Tunney one might name
And he will live forever in the 'Boxing Hall of Fame'.
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In the sixties in my prime
Before I discovered rhyme
And felt the yearn for the warmer clime
That was back in Auden's time.
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Of course I know that the past is gone forever
But in the past the seeds of our lives are sown
And I still have memories of a Childhood close to Nature
And from those good memories happiness has grown.
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