An animal is
Something that kills without reason
Something that attacks without warning
Something that is ether alone or in packs
Something that attacks those that aren’t like them
Humans are Animals

I want to smell again the fresh cut grass of the fields of southland.

I want to taste again the salt on my lips as I walk out of the ocean on Hanalei beach.

I want to see again the ruins of past civilisations in Rome.

I want to hear again the soulful blues busker singing his heart out on Beale st.

I want to feel again the cool fresh water of a mountain stream

But if I can never do any of these things again. I want to be anywhere with you.

Sons and daughters of New Zealand Soil
Buried far away in strange lands
We stand here at dawn on this day
In the towns where you grew up but never grew old
To remember you and your sacrifice
You did not grow old so we could

A laugh on a warm day
A well played tennis game
A simple tulip flower
Brings a smile in the darkest hour

A tower of strength
A battle fought so gracefully
A sentence said in final clarity
Keeps you ever dear to me

A stretch of beach
A life lesson
A memory that's always near
Of A special Mother who's always there

When you left me mum my old world came to an end
there is darkness in this new world
the sunshine that was you is gone
a world without your laughter is cold
Your smile a beacon extinguished
my footsteps are unsure
in this dark new world

Hate is a gunshot it’s loud, it shakes you, and it burns inside.
Love is a ray of sun it’s silent, it calms you, and it warms you.

The dawn cracks as the majestic artillery ceases its roar.
I sit in a trench that once sustained life.
A boy in men’s clothes, watching and waiting.
The whistle sounds that puts my heart in my throat, as fear rolls across my body.
I climb the 20 foot ladder in seconds, over the top rifle at the ready.
I’ll do my part for king and country.
As I look across the writhing and moaning muddy hell.
The barking of machine guns reach my ears.
With the sound of steel bees whizzing past my head I run past the barbed wire nest that protects our trench.
As I sprint with a scream in my voice, a fear in my heart and heroics running through my brain.
I see the enemy close yet a 1000 miles away.
Suddenly the world goes quiet, slows, my legs fail and I fall to the embrace of the mud.
Another lost son to the heavenly hell of Passchendaele

THE DARK CLOUDS ROLL IN
MY MOOD DEFLATES
HELLO MY OLD FRIEND
THE DARKNESS WITHIN
IT’S BEEN AWHILE
I THOUGHT YOU HAD GONE
IF ONLY

YOU’VE COME TO TORTURE ME
CHANGE MY THOUGHTS FROM HAPPY DREAMS
TO A WORLD WITHOUT ME
WHAT A EASIER LIFE THAT WOULD BE
I MOURN FOR LOST LOVE
DREAMS NEVER REALISED
WITH PEOPLE I NEVER TRULY KNEW

THE THINGS YOU’LL SAY TO ME
WILL HAUNT MY MEMORY
“YOU’RE WORTHLESS”
“YOU’RE UGLY”
“YOU’RE WEAK”
“NO ONE WILL EVER TRULY LOVE YOU”
THESE THINGS I’LL REMEMBER FROM TIME TO TIME

THE DARK CLOUDS ROLL BY
MY MOOD SOARS
GOODBYE MY OLD FRIEND
THE DARKNESS WITHIN
TILL WE MEET AGAIN

An old man sits in his Reclining chair
Silent and still as a windless day
He looks out the window
To a time and a land far away
He remembers the constant state of fear
He remembers the death that was there
Letters from a sweetheart in a foreign language
That laid strewn across the ground
After he killed a young man that looked just like him
His screams and cries keep him awake sometimes
He remembers his mates Jim and Jack
Who never made it back
He still can’t talk about the hit Jim took
Jack they couldn’t find all the pieces
They say he was lucky he came back unscathed
Or did he?

Regrets are gambles you’ve taken that didn’t pay off.
I’ve gambled a lot in life and lost.
I put my chips on money instead of love. I’ve got the cash and she walked off.
I once took a hand of selfishness over a hand of time with a loving mother.
Now I’ve laid that loving mother to rest.
Regrets are gambles that didn’t pay off but don’t go bust on love

She dances easy and slow, you’re transfixed by her movement.
That painted faced fallen angel with the intoxicating perfume.
Will start hammers pounding in your skull
She’ll sell you the lies you want to hear
For a while you’ll be the only man she’s ever known.
You’ll fall for the name that was never hers.
She’ll take advantage of the pain while making it dissipate.
She’s not a dream, she’s not an angel or the devil.
She’s just a woman making her way in this world.
With what the world gave her.

Dear Mother

I shot another man today.
With a bullet a sent him on his way.
I went numb a thousand men ago.
Their faces haunt me when I try to sleep.
soldier that’s my occupation
A soldier Boy sending boys like me to their graves.
Lord have Mercy on the soul of this soldier boy.

Little Johnny took his life last night because him and his girlfriend got into a fight. She said I want us to be over and he found solace at the end of a revolver. Now she’s crying by his coffin saying she still loves him. Things would have been ok in a day or two if they had of talked like adults   do. All the adults will say he had his whole life ahead of him.

Young Chloe reads her last text then takes a hand full of pills. Her so called friends that sit there at the cemetery say that wasn’t the intent of calling her a pig in her prom dress. Never mind about the thousands of messages they’ve sent before telling young Chloe she’s a *****. All the adults will say she had her whole life ahead of her.

Young Jim got this Skyline for his birthday he’s been driving for a year or so. He thinks it’s awesome doing skids. till he looses control and hits the pole that was hid. His friends that sit in the little church that cheered him on say it was all over in a sec man what a wreck. All the adults will say is he had his whole life ahead of him.

Hey Mr Tui Bird where do you go?
I wish I was like you.
Able to fly away across a sky so blue.
Maybe then she'd smile at me too.
The way she smiles at you.

The poor man wants the mansion
                    The rich man wants a shack
                          The poor man wants a princess
                                     The rich man just wants a girl
                                     The poor man wants to be a rich man
                                                              The rich man wants to be poor

Your smile is one thing
that can turn darkness to light
let your smile shine out