I'Ve Lived For More Than Two Decades In Victoria Poem by Francis Duggan

I've lived for more than two decades in Victoria and on many roads I've driven up and down
Far from where I was born and I grew into manhood in old Claraghatlea a mile from Millstreet Town
Perhaps I'll never again see the old fields resplendent in their wildflowers of the May
Or hear again the birds sing in the high wood by Clara Mountain from here far away
I hear that there are great changes in Millstreet and very few there nowadays I would know
I left there to go south in the mid eighties when Clara wore a December hat of snow
I haven't been back since to old Duhallow and my better years in life to the long gone
At the best of times financially embarrassed and the biological clock on my life ticking on
I've been away too long now to feel homesick for where I lived when I was a younger man
From that old house close to the Claraghatlea stream where my life's journey in the World began
The stream where often I heard the dark brown dipper the water bird with breast as white as snow
Sing in the coolness of the early evening as the winds of rain down from the hills did blow
I've lived for more than two decades in Victoria far south of the place where I lived my life's prime
The years have left me looking that much older there is no holding back the hands of time.