Anne From Mallow Poem by Francis Duggan

She lives in Richmond by the river the Yarra deep and brown
A woman in her eighties she hailed from Mallow town
Through Mallow Town in County Cork Blackwater river flow
By house she left for London more than sixty years ago.

She asked me did i have a beer to toast Australia day
It only comes but once a year enjoy it whilst you may
I seldom think of Mallow now it seems so far away
And Australia now is home to me so Anne McKenna say.

She left that Town in county Cork when she was just eighteen
And she has travelled far since then and many Lands she's seen
She worked in London during world war 2 those were tough years she said
But through the dark days glimmered hope for better days ahead.

She last was back in Mallow Town in nineteen eighty three
And she can only recall now the changes that she see
The few remaining that she knew were showing their years in gray
The passing years bring with them change it's always been that way.

Where cyclists ride the Yarra track and others walk and jog
You'll see her in the morning with her pomeranian dog
A woman in her eighties with silver through the brown
A long, long way from Ireland County Cork and Mallow Town.