The travellers parked their romany horse drawn vans at the Shannaknock Cross when when frosted fields were bare <br />But despite the cold and damp weather they did not seem to have a care <br />Their pinto horses with ropes tied to trees munched on bunches of hay <br />And old Clara Hill wore his hat of snow on a cold February day <br />The coldness of the Winter chill was in the frosty air <br />A week before the first of March and Millstreet Town Horse Fair <br />The by roads of Duhallow they had travelled up and down <br />On their way to the big horse fair that was held in Millstreet Town <br />Time does not wait for anyone and leaves us looking older and gray <br />But the good memories of our childhood years till death with us will stay <br />I loved them for their love of poetry, song and music and life they did enjoy <br />But the sixties brought great change to Duhallow where I lived as a boy <br />The late twentieth century to Ireland brought great changes and few things seem to last <br />And their romany vans and pinto horses now a memory of the past.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/now-a-memory-of-the-past/
