Scottish Annie Poem by Francis Duggan

She hails from the English -Scottish border country far north of here even as the crow might fly
And she will be twenty four years in Australia in a few months from now on the twenty sixth day of July,
Scottish Annie is a Nature loving person and even by their chirps birds she can identify
And she can name every insect in her garden and every type of ant and bee and butterfly

She has never married or given birth to a child and she will be forty five years old in May
And she's not proud she never uses makeup nor does she use hair dyes for to hide her gray
And she still has her border country accent she brought it with her from so far away
A person may live distant from the Homeland but the accent of the Homeland with them stay.

She often talks of her young years in Scotland around her parents home south of Coldstream
The fields in Winter often gray and frostbound and of sunny foreign places she did dream
But Spring she always brought her rich green beauty and the hawthorns wore their white blooms of the May
And skylark carolled high above the valley and chaffinch sang to greet the dawn of day

She lives far south of her old Homeland Scottish Annie and the accent she brought with her with her stay
And she feels happy in the Land Down Under there is such marvellous wild life here she say
She has not been back to her home in Coldstream since she left on that morning in July
And since ninety six Seasons have passed and gone forever but on looking back the years just seemed to fly.