Rose Poem by Francis Duggan

There's years of sorrow in her eyes those eyes as blue as sloes
And her hair once dark is now quite gray she has a flattened nose
She's known the wrath of angry man she took his angry blows
But she once was young and beautiful the battered widow Rose.

She's fifty five she looks much more she wears the scars of life
And she's been through a horrid time she's been a battered wife
Perhaps the happiest day for her was when her husband died
Beneath the wheels of heavy truck 'some say it was suicide'

She fell in love with 'Boiler Jack' for life's mistakes we pay
He was a nice enough bloke then 'I quote what others say'
She gave birth to a baby boy her little blue eyed Lew
And she knew happiness and love and Jack seemed happy too.

But Jack was often in the pub he liked women and beer
And he fell out of love with Rose and found another dear
He vent his frustrations on Rose and scarce a night went by
That he did not kick or hit his wife watched by their little boy.

But one night he did not come home the police came instead
And told the wife of boiler Jack that her husband was dead
She cried not of a broken heart her tears were of relief
How could she mourn a brutal man he was not worth her grief.

Her fair haired son with dark blue eyes looked so much like his Dad
But he grew wild beyond control his school reports were bad
He was the school yard bully Lew to others he was cruel
And when warnings he refused to heed he was expelled from school.

He'd watched his father beat his mum when he was little boy
And child Psychiatrist told the children's court that was the reason why
That he was cruel to other kids he had to be put straight
So he was sent to reform school 'a warden of the state'.

Rose often visited her son though her he refused to see
She was the scapegoat for his woes for his great misery
She'd done her very best for him her best was not enough
The paths of life for some are smooth for others very rough

When Lew left the reform school he went to live away
And she doesn't seem to have a clue where he might be today
He like his dad before him had given to her hell
But still she hopes to find her son and she prays he's keeping well.

She only found unhappiness when good she tried to do
And I do not envy womankind what some of them go through
Some times to keep on keeping on great fortitude require
And that she still has the will to live a story to inspire

Her hair once dark is now quite gray she has a flattened nose
And she's known the wrath of angry man she tok his angry blows
Rejected by her only child that hurt with her remain
But still she hopes to see the day that she'll meet her son again.