When I was in my twenties seems like only yesterday <br />I thought I'd never grow older my hair would never gray <br />But our life's prime passes quickly and time keeps ticking on <br />And now in my early sixties my better years long gone. <br /> <br />The wanderlust was in me I left the old Homeplace <br />And I might seem a stranger now where mine was a known face <br />Since I left a generation into adulthood have grown <br />In Claraghatlea by Millstreet Town where I was once well known. <br /> <br />From that old place in Duhallow I've been so long away <br />And a stranger in the old Town I well might seem today <br />Most of those I went to school with I have not seen for years <br />Yet for my fading memories I do not have any tears. <br /> <br />The Finnow flowing in the old fields to the Blackwater to the sea <br />Or old Clara in Duhallow I never more may see <br />There now I might feel a stranger since few would know of me <br />And a migrant in this Southern Land is all I'll ever be.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-i-was-in-my-twenties/
