December In Duhallow And Sliabh Luachra Poem by Francis Duggan

The Boggeraghs are cloaked in the fogs rains of gray
It is cold, wet and windy in Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra today
A forecast high for the day of a chilly three degrees
And the cold winds are howling in the bare deciduous trees
Christmas and the birth of a new year in time not far away
In the gray dawn cattle in farmyard sheds bellowing for silage or hay
Every river, stream, rill, field and roadside drain
Are flowing bank high swollen by heavy rain
In Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra December is a cold, windy and wet month of the year
And birdsong is a thing that one does not hear
The mornings if not windy and wet are cold frosty and gray
And December the twenty first is the year's shortest day
In Duhallow and Sliabh Luachra three months from the Spring
You never hear any bird whistle and sing.