Francis Duggan Poems

The career her mum had mapped out for her did not work out to plan
For Catherine went to Kenya and married a Maasai man
She adapted to a different sort of culture and a different way of life
And to the noble Robert she's a devoted wife.
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She talks of the country around Powlett river
And the highlands of South Gippsland gray to brown
And though her search for self betterment has brought her north to Sydney
She still remembers old Wonthaggi Town.
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Her husband a teller in the big City bank
And the middle class snob she craves social rank
Her dream is he will be manager one day
A man of influence with a huge take home pay.
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From the bogs of Ballydesmond down the fields of Knocknagree
Flow on wandering Blackwater flow on blissfully and free
Down by Cork and Kerry border through the Meadows of Rathmore
At the starting of your journey for the wild Atlantic shore.
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She earns her living as a care giver that sort of work to her appeal
For she is a kind and caring person the lovely Vanessa Veal
Always smiling and quite friendly a lovely young woman with straw blond hair
Her type now seem on the decrease people like her all too rare.
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Rhymers will always be rhymers and for as long as they live as rhymers they remain
Penning blank verse does not seem to interest them one might say they have rhyme on the brain
They may be seen as out of fashion by those with their literary degrees
Who are seen as literary experts and for their opinions command high fees
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So generous and kind in her own charming way
Tomorrow for her will be a special day
Her sixty eight birthday she will celebrate
She looks well though she has been ageing of late
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Our sense of self importance within the mind grows
Into selfishness and one has to suppose
That this is a sense of survival 'twould seem
Self conceit and arrogance does not grow on low self esteem
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Sigerson Clifford sung of the The Boys of Barr Na Sraide the happy boys who hunted for the Wran
The boys who grew up to be freedom fighters Who took on the British troops The Black and Tan
He glorified them in his famous ballad the brave young rebels of his Kerry Town
The boys of Caherciveen and Barr Na Sraide to fight for Ireland their claim to renown
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He talks about his youth in South Australia
Raised on a farm south east of Bordertown
The happiest years of his life he remember
Were spent out on the paddocks gray to brown.
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