Fred The Poor Mouth Poem by Francis Duggan

Fred is a man always looking for pity and he's one who seems to thrive on sympathy
And he suffers much in his imagination and his most often used words are 'poor me'
And many strangers for him have felt sorry but of his circumstances they were not aware
They did not know that Fred is very wealthy that in fact he's a multi millionaire.

If you did not know Fred you well might wonder how do the man support his kids and wife
And you well might say that the fellow warrants pity and I do not envy him his lot in life
For Fred never mentions that he's a company director and that he lives in the most exclusive part of town
And those who know him call him 'Fred the poor mouth' the wealthy man who tells others he is down.

The wealthy man who pretends he's a battler he has been talking the poor mouth for years
And you'd swear by him that he is short of money that he can't even afford a few beers
The pin striped suit on him don't seem convincing and you feel convinced he's wearing op shop clothes
Poor wealthy Fred don't feel he's very wealthy and he's poor
in many ways I do suppose.

Like poor mouth Fred I'm sure you will find many who feel that by life they are hard done by
They like to have you believe they are battlers and the fact that they are wealthy they deny
They feel that life has treated them unfairly and their money they cannot seem to enjoy
And I'm sure you'll see the moral in this story that happiness money can never buy.