Bill Mendy Poem by Francis Duggan

Bill Mendy is not scared of the grim reaper
For he has spent his boyhood years in hell
The story of his life he never relate
As such a story too painful to tell.

For years he has not seen his foster parents
And he has no wish to meet with them again
At their hands he suffered uncalled for beatings
The welts long healed but the mental scars remain.

The hard life is already telling on him
In the past few years his brown hair turned to gray
For one in his thirties he looks much older
He will be thirty eight on his birthday.

Twelve years ago he married lovely Mandy
But the marriage only lasted seven years
She took their son and daughter and moved in with another
'He must have shed a bucketful of tears'.

He loved her well and was a good provider
Yet their marriage ended in the divorce court
He had to sell his house and give her half of the money
And as well he has to pay her child support.

His wife lives up north west with her lover and the children
He last saw them sixteen months ago in May
They live in Broome in the Western Australia tropics
Far north of Perth thousands of miles away.

Bill Mendy has no fears of the grim reaper
For he feels his happiest will be his last day
He's thirty eight this sad long suffering fellow
But he looks older and his hair is gray.