The Countryman may go to live in the City but the Countryside in him remain <br />And often in his flights of fancy he hears the frogs sing in the drain <br />And he hears the boobook owl calling as he hunt on the moonlit gum trees <br />That voice once to him so familiar comes to him in the freshening breeze. <br /> <br />The Countryman lives in the City for one reason much higher pay <br />He has to support a wife and raise a young family in his rural Town he could not afford to stay <br />He used to work for a dairy farmer from dawn until fading twilight <br />Working condition in the City far better he now works on a building site. <br /> <br />Yet often in his flights of fancy he walks down the Country Town street <br />And he stops for to chat to an old friend one that he feels happy to meet <br />Such things that he miss about his Hometown where his was a familiar face <br />He may live and work in the City but the City is not his home-place. <br /> <br />The Countryman lives in the City far from the home of the wombat and roo <br />But in fancy he can hear the shrike thrush and the yellow tail black cockatoo <br />Huge parrots to him once familiar with strong beaks and feathers dark brown <br />Shred pine cones for their tiny dark seed on the pine trees in the park of the Town.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-countryman/
