Francis Duggan Poems

Bank high in the fields of Duhallow in flood waters of brown
The Blackwater River flows towards Mallow Town
As onwards towards saltwater it babbles on it's way
Swollen by heavy rainfall from late yesterday
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The unwashed, ignored and the socially down-trod
Born to life as the children of the lesser god
The homeless the stateless and the refugees
As is said of poverty it does come of varying degrees
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That everybody is equal in the eyes of the law is not true
Though a fair go to everyone should be their due
That money is power only true for to say
And it speaks every language in the World of today
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Wherever we go to our past goes along
It lives in our minds like the words of a favorite song
For as long as the gift of memory we retain
Good and bad memories of the what was in us will remain
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In her mid nineties her hair silver gray
Bella has seen many a night and day
Her long time husband Luke in the local cemetery lay
A good husband to her and a good person in every way
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He likes to drink top shelf liquor gin, whisky, brandy, vodka and rum
And he likes to talk himself up whilst chewing on his gum
Self confident Donny one of the cocky young blokes of the town
Daydreams of great material wealth and renown
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Lloyd George invited them to come and fight for us and Ireland of British rule we will set free
And they young adventurous and brave though naive as can be
Thought the proposition of the British Prime Minister was quite a good idea
And to fight under the Union Jack they readily did agree
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He sings in all Seasons and every day of the year
The song of the Aussie magpie so pleasant to hear
He was born to sing such a beautiful song
You hear him sing once you cannot get him wrong.
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Across the wide brown Countryside the cool winds of late Autumn blow
And on a timber fence post the cawing of a pale eyed crow
Is echoing through the silence of the quiet Rural day
In four days the birth of Winter with the demise of May.
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Though not in his own district seen as one of note
He stands alone as Australia's greatest mystic poet
Though in his Hometown of Penola and Nhill where he once lived they honour his fame
Not that many around the Victorian -South Australian border would know of him by name.
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