Francis Duggan Poems

It is a fact of life and fact never lie
We are born of a woman eventually to die
Like all other life forms for us there's an end
We are only mere mortals why otherwise pretend
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Near the sea in South Australia the Murray River flows brown
Through the old and dry countryside by Tailem Bend Town
A river that has flowed for centuries before the dinosaur time
And has been the inspiration of story and rhyme
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In the clear blue sky woolly looking clouds of gray
The sun it is shining on a lovely Spring day
A high of a warm enough 28 degrees
With only the faintest sign of a slight breeze.
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For years as an amateur rhymer i have penned a whole heap of rhyme
Since back in the early nineteen seventies when i was in my life's prime
I have been addicted to rhyming long before time left me feeling and looking older and gray
An addiction that will surely be with me right up till my last night and day
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I have lived through many a Season since i left west of Millstreet Town
On a cold evening in early December with the wintery rain drizzling down
Way back in the mid nineteen eighties i do feel much older today
Time leaves everyone looking older and this is only true to say
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Why do we define people by their material or financial success
By their so called social standing or their postal address
By the size of their home, swimming pool and car
These things tell us nothing of the person you truly are
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From their bouts of melancholia medication only a temporary release
People with clinical depression are on the increase
In the twenty first century of the internet and the Iphone
Many with clinical depression face life's challenges alone
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In flat coastal shallow lakes them sometimes you will see
Wild ducks not familiar to many and not familiar to me
With fleshy lobes under bill and pink around ears and overall brown mottled gray
Birds i know of and have seen but do not see every day
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The years have left me ageing balding and gray
But of Nature i learn something new every day
Yes every day of her i learn something new
For to say this i am not one of a few
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Known as The Dog Woman she aged in the graceful way
She never used hair dye to hide her wrinkles or hair dye to cloak her gray
Her husband long deceased their only offspring their daughter a grandmother with her husband in the U S of A
One she had not seen for many a day
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