Guiseppe Poem by Francis Duggan

Guiseppe came to Australia in nineteen fifty with Maria his lovely young dark haired wife
To Box Hill near Melbourne in Victoria for to make for themselves a new life
From Reggio in southern Italy a city by the Meditteranean sea
She was twenty one and a few months and he had just turned twenty three.

They raised two children Johnny and Sophia and Guiseppe now a great grand dad
But he lives alone now and lonely and happier days he has had
Maria she died last Winter for a few years she had not felt well
For more than fifty years they had been soul mates and he miss her more than words can tell.

For more than forty years he worked on City buildings and he earned his every pay
But he does not like to talk of his young years the past is the past now he say
And each time he mentions Maria you see the tears come to his eyes
He misses his loved one so badly and his feelings he cannot disguise.

He looks strong for one in his late seventies though his thinning hair is quite gray
And the accent of his Mother Country still with him and with him will stay
Until the Grim Reaper the cold one will decide for to give him the call
The Reaper who treats all of us as equal and the Reaper who will claim us all.

Guiseppe an honest old fellow the one who would not harm a fly
But life for him is very lonely since Maria his soul mate did die
To her grave site in Box Hill cemetery he takes flowers every second day
And he kneels on the grass by her headstone with tears in his eyes as he pray.