Francis Duggan Poems

Had I a Fairy Godmother and if she came to me
And said I'll grant to you two favours what might those favours be?
I'd ask that I'd feel happy and live my life carefree
And my second wish a small cottage that overlook the sea.
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Old enough to hold a car and truck licence and old enough to vote
And old enough to have a gun licence and operate a small fishing boat
And old enough to recognize an apple from a quince
Yet not old enough to be blessed with much sense
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He is a poetry expert at least he feels that way
And on what others write which is their business he likes to have his say
The chance to offend people he choose to dislike but does not know he never fails to miss
Just one more arrogant ignoramus to him ignorance is bliss
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For to celebrate war there's always one more parade
And out of war warriors heroes are made
Only the good die young some are known to say
But I know good people who are old and gray.
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For far too long the Land of blood and tears
This conflict seems to have gone on for years
Though Yeltzin and Putin don't feel any shame
The Chechen rebels for this war they blame.
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She's almost sixty years and she's still dancing and she is still known as the dancing queen
And she was a champion dancer in her twenties one of the finest dancers ever seen
And still she is a marvel on the dance floor and with dancers half her age she can compete
The passing years may have slowed her a little but there's still years of dancing in her dancing feet.
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Happy Birthday to you Genevieve today you are twenty nine
And with age you have grown mellow like the good expensive wine
And on looking back a decade the years simply seemed to fly
And hope this tenth day of August is a day you will enjoy.
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Born in a tent in the gold fields of New South Wales Australia's greatest writer many say
And in his life time he had thousands of readers and he has millions of readers today
Afflicted by deafness and mental illness and cursed by alcoholism one well might say his life a tragedy
And like many good writers before and after he spent his last years in utter poverty.
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Some 50 kilometres out of the next country town
The miles of flat paddocks looking gray to brown
The hues of Australia are gray, brown and green
This great Land looks different to others you've seen.
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The more I learn about Nature the less I realize I know
About how creatures live in wild state, about how plants and grasses grow
About how flowers close in the evening and open to the morning light
We learn every day from Nature and we learn from what others write.
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