Francis Duggan Poems

She arrived here from Mexico City about seventeen years ago
And she's just had her thirty eight birthday a night out with her husband Joe
They live in Box Hill in Victoria where he has lived for most of his life
And she says in her beautiful accent 'me lucky to be good man's wife'.
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The moorhen chirp where rank grass grow
On bank by where Sullane waters flow
And wild flowers in their billions bloom
In meadows just out of Macroom.
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Upon the leaf litter that covers the ground
The faded rose petals lay scattered around
The last rose of Autumn has answered the call
Of the cold grim reaper and so too must we all.
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I know, I know the fields are lush and green
And in Summer an average temperature of nineteen
And there's no need to tell me for I know
That from October to March most days are cold enough to snow
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The sooty oystercatchers pipe o'er the waves at Inverloch
But i can't write about it for i have writer's block
And i can't write about it for i can't feel inspired
Today my soul feels weary and i feel a little tired.
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It was on a bleak December a cold and wintery day
And the fields around the old home were looking frosty gray
And darkening clouds in sunless sky told sleet or rain was near
And i said farewell to Millstreet and places i loved dear.
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There was a man named Aoghan O Rathaille
And he lived by the immortal Paps of Shrone
The first great Gaelic Bard of Sliabh Luachra
And in Gaelic speaking Ireland his stature has grown.
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I can hear the boobook calling in those woods not far away
He is calling in the gum wood bird that hide from lamp of day
Mopoke mopoke re-echo in the silence of the night
And the boobook is a calling when the woods are dark and quiet.
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When mountains wear their Winter hats of snow
And cold winds down from the cold Northlands blow
And fields from heavy frost are looking gray
Pied wagtail in the farmyard spends his day.
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She was quite young not even in her twenties
And i was two years younger seventeen
And i loved her but the thought of love it scared me
For to the ways of love i was still green.
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