By Mushera In January Poem by Francis Duggan

The weather forecast does have rain for today
And behind the low gray clouds the sun hidden away
A chilly though dry morning of around five degrees
And freshening winds across the foothills soughing in the pine trees

Stormwater flowing bank high in every field drain
And old Mushera half cloaked in the gray fogs of rain
On the Butter Road the cars moving slowly above Togher Bog
Due to the poor driver visibilty in the mid morning fog

In January in Mushera songbirds one does not hear
In what is a windy and wet and cold time of year
At least ten weeks until April in Spring
When the wildborn birds will build their nests and sing

In the farmyard sheds cattle are bellowing for silage or hay
In depths ofWinter they often feel hungry it does seem this way
Nomadic redwing thrushes of human kind known to be shy
Obscured in the fog chirping as they does fly

In a field by Mushera in mid January
A gray crow is cawing on a deciduous ash tree
At least ten weeks from early April in Spring
When the wildborn birds will build their nests and sing.