Francis Duggan School Poems

In old school house yard at Ruby a dark brown shorthorn cow
And leghorn pullets cackling beneath the cypress bough
This school must hold good memories and memories live somehow
Here in their lunch hour children played but where are those children now? .
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Some of them with the departed and the others growing old and gray
Those that I went to school with in the long gone yesterday
From the boys and girls I went to school with many years before I reached my prime
I am separated by distance and by long years of time.
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We played football in the school yard and we swam in the Finnow
But the years go by so quickly and to father time we bow
And the boys I went to school with perhaps now looking gray
And many of them from the Homeland shore like me live far away.
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Far north of this countryside near the City of Warrnambool
In Millstreet Town i was a pupil in the Boys Primary School
The to be famous rally driver Billy Coleman was a pupil there then
Sometimes shy young fellow grow into brave young men
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In the Lake School of music in Koroit Town the craic it is great
In the sessions in the pubs there they party till late
Till the wee hours of the morning they drink and they play
Music, song and laughter the best of medicine as some are known to say
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It does seem time is against her she is eighty three
She may never again go back to Knocknagree
To the high village in Sliabh Luachra in the green countryside
By the Boggeragh Ranges that stretch far and wide
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The boys and girls i went to school with where might they be today
Like me some of them from Millstreet ageing far away
And where the deceased are some of them does lay
Time does not wait for anyone as the wise one does say
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Though i was born and raised near there and lived there for many years
For there i have shed my last nostalgic tears
Old Millstreet Town where i attended school
Far north of this countryside between Koroit and Warrnambool
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Some i went to school with not living today
And time has left me looking wrinkled and gray
The farewell bell for them will too ring for me
Some time in the future whenever that be
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I was called many cruel things in my young years such as buffoon and idiot and fool
Such insults to me were quite hurtful when i was the dunce of the school
I remember in primary school at the teacher i used to stick out my tongue at him behind his back
Till once he did happen to see me at it which left my right palm sore and black
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Those i went to school with showing their years in gray
Like me in life they have known a far better day
Some of them from Millstreet Town live far away
Whilst some in the old Parish did choose to stay
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Some of them live in and near Millstreet yet and some from Duhallow far away
And in Mother Earth's bosom some of them forever lay
Some of them ageing naturally and some with dye cover their gray
The boys and girls I grew up with where might they be today
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In his boyhood years dismissed by many as an ordinary fool
But a billionaire in his forties the once dunce of the school
From the humblest of beginnings he scaled the heights of success and fame
His face on any newspaper recognizable without to it his name
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In the school-yard in the lunch break childhood games we did play
Though this is going back in time many a day
We were young and innocent but as young and innocent did not stay
And that we grew up too quickly now seems sad to say
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Some of those i went to school with in Millstreet did stay
And some from there living in Lands far away
And some of them amongst the deceased do lay
All human life is terminal as the wise one does say
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Though i cannot claim to have uni degrees
I do know that knowledge does not grow on trees
But i learn from life and nature every day
Learn as you live with me it is this way
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In his younger years supposed to be a dunce in his school
The boy who grew up to be nobody's fool
And became a legend in the history of human kind
He was one who was blessed with a brilliant mind
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The boys and girls I went to school with from me now far away
And even some of them not living now where the dead are they lay
And in distant flights of fancy I fancy I see them yet
And them I still remember and them I won't forget.
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She was in high school in the early eighties but now some gray in her brown hair grow
And though she is only in her mid thirties the years on her already show
In her twenties she looked quite lovely but she has been putting on weight
One might say she looks a bit plumper though health wise she is feeling great.
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All of those I went to school with now looking the worst for wear
And those of them who are not using hair dye must have much gray in their hair
And some gone to the Reaper and others from Millstreet live far away
Whilst others in Duhallow have chosen for to stay.
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