Francis Duggan Poems

The smoke of the barby, the smell of frying meat
And even in the shade we perspire in the heat
And I scratch where the mozzies are biting my feet
Far distant from Ireland, North Cork and Millstreet.
...

Every shower of rain is welcome it's been two months so they say
Since it last rained in Maleny and it's raining there today
And the farmer he feels happy though his paddocks looking bare
And he thanks the God rainmaker that some rain he now can spare.
...

I've broken a promise I've made to myself
That I'd return to Ireland in the Spring
But without me grass will grow and flowers will bloom
And birds will build their nests and chirp and sing.
...

The wanderlust is in him he is young and carefree
He's now in sunny Queensland deep diving out at sea
He's been to Asia, North America and Europe his next port of call Japan
For one in his young twenties he's a well travelled man.
...

In the sunshine a blackbird is singing in the front garden
on a birch tree
And she lives far south of Duhallow and her old home place of Knocknagree
A widow in her mid to late forties her brown hair is fading to gray
...

She loves green Mother Nature with all her heart and soul
And in the fight to save Birdsland from the developers she played a leading role
And to the cause of Nature she remains ever true
The noble Betty Marsden her equals only few.
...

Nice people not known for to put others down
Or be racist to anyone black, white or brown
And others of their achievements they never try to impress
We need more of their type and of the not nice less.
...

Heaven on Earth is for the privileged few
That's something quite well known not anything new
And millions are living in their Earthly Hell
With only sad stories of their lives to tell
...

I am quite ordinary myself that much of me I do know
But in numbers around me my type seem to grow
For ordinary people I meet every day
And in that I mean ordinary in an ordinary way
...

For the winners many weeks of hip hip hooray
And the feeling of joy with their fans months does stay
But for one to win one must lose as some do say
And for the losers only sadness post Grand Final Day.
...