Just An Ageing Battler Poem by Francis Duggan

In Wales I picked potatoes some thirty years ago
And in Ireland I logged pine trees by the mountains in the snow
Yet for my rough and tumble life I don't have much to show
And I have not learned that much from life and so much to learn and know.

I've never been a high achiever and my dreams are only small
And to New York in the mid sixties when I look back I recall
How the big City life seemed hectic to a teenage Irish boy
Who was green to City living and was Homesick, young and shy.

Worked on building sites in Melbourne with people from every Land
And the value of multiculturalism I have come to understand
That it takes every Nationality for to make a Nation great
And one of a different culture can become your greatest mate.

I have worked in cherry pickers by high power lines trimming trees,
It is dangerous work and sweaty hardly knew a moment's ease
And toilsome work wearies the body and it doesn't enrich the brain
And I'm just an ageing battler and a battler I'll remain.

I have done a bit of travelling and I've worked at this and that
Spent time with Pipeline contractors in Buninyong and Ballarat
Worked with people of all Nations of every creed and race
And I do feel multiculturalism is something we ought to embrace.

In a materialistic World I have never known success
I am just an ageing battler nothing more or nothing less
Never driven by ambition and my dreams are only small
But I do believe on fair play and on a fair go for all.