John Still Thinks Of Australia

From the field at the back of their house John and Eileen can see The mighty Blackwater river flow slowly towards the sea Along the Cork-Waterford border through places flat and green Yet John still thinks of Australia and things there he's done and seen. He thinks of the snowy mountains where he worked in his prime When he was in his twenties and that's going back in time But the Victorian-New South Wales border more than half a World away From the flat lands near Youghal where he resides today. He worked in Sydney and in Melbourne for Grollos in Collins street In the height of the Summer jack hammering in the heat Still he enjoyed the hard work and the take home pay was good And he is one who never pined for the Land of his boyhood. Saturday night at the Normandy Hotel where he and Eileen often took the floor And they shared a table with their friends for three hours or even four The Irish pubs in Queens Parade full of music, dance and song And three or four hours spent there did not at all seem long Nineteen years in Australia that seems a lengthy span Since he left Gortavehy in seventy three as a fit and a young man And he loved it in Australia and the Aussie way of life And there he found love and his soul mate in Eileen his Irish wife. He lives in his old Homeland amongst the finest scenery Near Youghal where the Blackwater slowly edges towards the sea Still he recalls quite often the happy days that he Spent in the Southern Country of the gum and wattle tree