Francis Duggan Poems

We cannot be too selfish if we take we too should give
And truer words have not been said than to live and let live
And if you don't like a person don't run that person down
As bad mouthing one you do not like will not win you renown.
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The second dawn of Spring is breaking gray
And on the wattle trees across the way
The whistling grey shrike thrushes are in song
At this time of year you hear them all day long.
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He's been all around Australia from Melbourne to Broome
And back again to Melbourne the fellow from Macroom
He's lived in Perth, Adelaide and Darwin and Brisbane and Mackay
And he's not done with travel yet the bloke from far away.
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The ancient hills of Toora are looking brown today
Yet they were lush and rather green when last I passed this way
But that was last September when the nesting birds did sing
And every where looked greener in the early days of Spring.
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I know a man a decent sort and he's lived in County Clare
And he tell me that in his heart he yearns to return to there
And that since he's returned to County Cork to Duhallow and Millstreet
He find the people boring and life's not half so sweet.
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The hungry vultures circling in the sky
Above the stricken beast they slowly fly
They will squabble for his carcass when he die
And the strongest bird the first feed will enjoy.
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A memory from the past I still recall
In the box hedge by the old garden wall
I saw two male dunnocks and a hen
Fly out of hedge and then with food fly in.
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In a high and bracken valley above the road that leads to Shrone
Is the lake of Gortavehy by a hill of het and stone
The shy and shaggy mountain sheep are bleating on the hill
In a landscape scarcely touched by man where time seems to stand still.
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Their lives are brief so very brief or so it has been said
And the butterflies you see today tomorrow may be dead
So little time for making love or pleasure to enjoy
An hour to them three years to us they soon grow old and die.
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I did know Maurice O Connor knew him since he was a boy
And I've been told that he has died which prompts me to ask why?
Why must a good fellow like him die and he yet not in his prime?
But I'm sure that question has been asked by others many a time.
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