LoughFunshinagh©2024TonyFallon326

 LoughFunshinagh©2024TonyFallon326

The waves started near Ardmullen like a distant ridge

Broke and rose once again in perpetual motion

No longer island to tame them there is much erosion

On and on they came to finally crash at Scally bridge

All the Beattie families must live in constant fear

That swans ducks and pike will soon be sharing their abode

When the filled sandbags can no longer save Ballagh road

And all wish the dissapearing lake would dissapear

Water water everywhere when will it stop cresting

Never before has the water been so deep or high

And it has been twenty five years since the lake went dry

The island have dissapeared no place for birds nesting

The flooding caused relocation of cattle and pigs

This was not caused by a few storms but rain repeated

Made worse by a solution that was not completed

Stopped by wealty busybodies beter knows as prigs

The Last Day

 Susan was a blind poet who lived in Alaska.She gave me a list of thirty words and asked me to write a poem. This is what I wrote.I don't think I saved it so I'm putting todays date on it.

TheLastDay©2024TonyFallon320

The Last day I saw her it was very cold

I spent little money on her I was a miser

 I wanted her in my family fold

I should not have let her go I should be wiser; 

If we had donuts that day we could dunk

But we spent some time rolling in the hay

And took pictures of her purple hair of punk

I begged her more than once to stay;

I prayed to God in his Heavenly height

Then the thunder started to roll

She said there’s remorse but no spite

I’ll come back before the Super bowl; 

That Sunday you and I once more will cleave

But now you need time to clear your brain.

You can hide in your hat but not your sleeve.

If I’m going crazy my sanity I must try to maintain

Missing313 2024

Missing  

Sometimes I see a pretty girl on the street tis then you I miss

Not only I remember your laugh and smile I also miss your kiss

You'd have thought all those memories would slip away with the years

But all those loving memories are our teenage souveneirs

The plans we had the dreams to fill an essence of our own

The many years not knowing whither or yon the great unknown

For six long months there was no one else without many plans

Like silly geese in puppy love the maturing of the glands

We had dreams of being together but I had an empty purse

While you had great ambitions to become a Hospital nurse

But things don't get better by themselves and did not improve

And while your parents put up with me they did not approve

I had no business to inherit so I knew they were right

I was not the oldest son so immigration was in sight.

So I boarded a jet One day in May I shall not forget

Leaving you and dear old Ireland on a day I oft regret

To the river glen and the winding road I bid a sad adieu

If you had not gone to town I would have said it to you

Those happy days are long gone with regret I look back

The suitcase was filled so long ago alas I can't unpack

The large wa;;et in my pocket was earned with sweat and tears

I wish you had come with me because now we'd be milliomaires

TheFamousBicycle©2024TonyFallon314

 

TheFamousBicycle©2024TonyFallon314

I pushed an old bicycle past your window last night

It has good brakes and tires but it has no front light

It's good for the roads but not good  in the wet fields

It should last you forever there's two invisible wheels

You know you can't keep it its just being lended

And you will return it when this lockdown is ended

I heard your new bicycle is a prisoner pardon the pun

You need some exercise and you're too old to run

I put it in the shed so it will  not gather any rust

And leave the police tag on it as we discussed

If anybody makes a fuss  they'd have to be insane

When you go to town buy a good lock and chain

We do want it back it's already been nicked 

If that happened again it might cause conflict

This is my good deed I don't want any reward

The camera was on so all the footage is stored

Lough Funschinagh

 Lough Funschinagh by Tony Fallon.(C)22416

Come listen to my story all you friends and peers,

And I’ll tell you of a Rahara Lake that often disappears.

It doesn’t bother the locals, in fact, they think it's common,

That a lake should disappear in the County of Roscommon.

The first time I saw an eel I thought it was a snake,

As I walked in shallow waters of the Disappearing Lake

If you want to know how to get there coming from Lecarrow

Turn left into O’Connor’s road which is winding and narrow

The further you go on that road the more it becomes remote

The kind of terrain more suited for a donkey or maybe a goat

In there you’ll have the company of wild geese, duck and drake.

They and seagulls nest their young ones on the Disappearing Lake

It is surrounded on all sides by roads plus wet and regular land

There is no kind of beaches because there is not a bit of sand

I often went there fishing with rod and reel and expensive gear,

But I never caught anything like the Beattie’s did with a spear

Ah! the pike that came from Funshinagh was the poor man’s steak.

And you couldn’t say the water wasn’t fresh in the Disappearing Lake

A Limerick woman came there once and with cameras was geared

But when she got there after travelling the lake had disappeared

I stood on Ardmullen hill one evening the lake stretched many miles

When you are far away in America those memories cause smiles

Another evening the sun was setting and I heard the corncrake

And watched the water turning red on the Disappearing Lake

One time my son and I were home on a bit of a summer vacation,

The lake was disappearing and Ardmullen was our daily location

If our fancy friends in New York saw us then they would be awestruck

To see us fighting off the locals for some pike in the Roscommon muck

Many Pictures of fish we caught and the dry terrain we did take,

For there was not a drop of water left in the Disappearing Lake

And now something has gone terribly wrong drought replaced by floods

That threatens farmers livestock their oats and wheat and spuds

Is this the end result of all the recent winters rain and storming 

Or another warning sign from nature about this global warming

Whoever though that shore dwellers would have to lie awake

Worrying about flooding, by water, from the Disappearing Lake.

Boost Post

Rita RIP ©2024TonyFallon215

 Rita RIP ©2024TonyFallon215

As Rita stood there with a lump in her throat

A letter in one hand in the other a ten pound note

She was proudly wearing her mother's gift of a coat

The first of her family to fly the others went by boat

She left the sad Knockcroghery Roscommon Ireland

With everything she owned in a suitcase in hand

But her parents and relaties were not the only one who pined

Her true love Brian from Rahara she was leaving behind

The hackney would take her to Shannon for the flight

And she'd sleep in  a new bed in the Bronx that night

But first there was the question of how all were at home

And if she was unemployed or she had a wandering syndrome

Over the years she'd drive from Yokers and leave the heat

And wind up with Cillian and Aidan  on Alabama Street

Since we all arrived there's been changes we have to adjust

Sometime to those changes we react with utter disgust

We lost the Kennedy brothers to bullets way too soon 

But we flew ships to mars and put men on the moon

Some people believed Covid was not a dangerous disease

In sex education bird are not birds and bees not bees

The country is in upheval and communities are divided

The Democrats and Republicans idea have collided

For four years we had Trump almost four more of Biden

They are candidates again and the division seems to widen

When God takes a loved one from us without any explanations

That's the time we need the companionship of our relations

So we came here to shed a tear for times that were better

She left her mark on all of us we shall not soon forget her.