Francis Duggan Poems

Brown dust from the sun scorched paddock is blowing into the sea
And the old sun bronzed migrant in this Land for half a century
Said a drier or a warmer spell than this I've yet to see
Since I left Duhallow years ago and the fields of Boherbue.
...

There are Gipsies in Australia or so I have been told
Do they still retain their customs, do they stick to ways of old?
Do they wander as in Europe not stay long in any Town
Or did they come here to Australia for to change and settle
...

He is in the dark as of yet about his unfaithful wife
And he know absolutely nothing of her adulterous life
On weekday mornings at ten thirty her young lover calls around
Whilst he works on house foundations with his pick axe breaking ground.
...

You should feel thankful you are born here
Where you can speak your feelings without fear
You could have been born in Country far away
Where you might have to watch each word you say.
...

It has to be coincidence or how can one explain
That whenever I'm in Warburton it rain
So many times I have been out that way
But never as of yet on sunny day.
...

She lay her eggs in nest of magpie, currawong or crow
And leave unsuspecting foster parent to raise her offspring
And whilst the foster bird raise young channel billed cuckoo
The nestling's mum towards distant places wing.
...

The sun doesn't shine by day and few birds in song
And the nights are dark and wet and cold and long
And like the weather the clouds of my heart gray
And Spring at least almost three months away.
...

Minda is one of life's great success stories but she has a terrible story to tell
Of neglect and alcoholic parents her teenage years were years of hell
And though the odds were stacked against her she had the desire to succeed
And like they say 'god loves a trier' and she is a trier indeed.
...

He had the wanderlust in him ever since he was a boy
And he wandered far from his Homeland far even as the crow fly
He tramped the highways and byways and up and down many bush track
With his tent and foam mattress and pillow and his doona all
...

In the darkness of the morning just before the dawn of day
I hear the magpies singing on the gums across the way
From mid July and onwards they build their nests and sing
And when the magpies are stick gathering you know 'twill soon be Spring.
...