Francis Duggan Poems

True heroes are not sportsmen or sportswomen though some with that would not agree
And true heroes are not wealthy power brokers with a strong sense of I, myself and me,
'No' true heroes are the under class battlers whose battle is against the odds
The poor and the forgotten fringe dwellers and the people frowned on by the Gods.
...

Just a week from the start of the winter and more than three months from the Spring
Yet on the powerlines on the roadside I hear a male goldfinch sing
In the last days of the Autumn on this sunny morning in May
His kin birds now sing in woods and on hedgerows in the Northlands far away.
...

I've never agreed that people due to birth right should be entitled to be held in high esteem
And I've never been one of those royal watchers yet each to their own or so to me it would seem
But when I read how James Hewitt is trying to sell Diane's love letters to him to myself I can only say how low
Can one stoop to for to come by a quick fortune at the expense of one who died six years ago.
...

She is one of the women who have fallen for James
And for to describe him she uses exalted names
Like Greek God, Apollo and georgeous looking man
But James seems oblivious to the worship of Ann.
...

I feel I am a non achiever my life's come to nothing at all
I go to the pub meet my mates there drink beer with them and talk football
And politics and the economy and work and family and war
That seems to forever keep raging in Lands where from we live afar.
...

The barriers of class distinction have never stood firmer 'twould seem
And of what it might feel to be wealthy so many don't bother to dream
The social gap it keeps on widening between the well off and the poor
And the middle class too doing nicely and very financially secure.
...

The currawongs on the gums piping and dark rain clouds darken the sky
And a gray fog cloaks the wooded hillside on this Winter's day in July
And a lone raven caws on the drenched wattle and every where looks rather gray
Yet Spring with each day is approaching and towards the hills she wings her way.
...

When I hear you talk of losers you I do not wish to hear
For you do sound quite judgemental and to me it would appear
That you've got that small man's complex though you stand over two metres in your shoes
And you keep on talking more rubbish after every dropp of booze.
...

For to defeat terrorism one do not wage war on terror for terrorists do not respect man made laws
Since the only way that terror can be defeated is for Governments to attack it's root cause
And that is not to shoot and bomb and murder for terror is caused by inequality
For the war on terror ought to be more friendly a benign war on man made poverty.
...

Some of them with the departed and the others growing old and gray
Those that I went to school with in the long gone yesterday
From the boys and girls I went to school with many years before I reached my prime
I am separated by distance and by long years of time.
...