Yesterday
Can never return
By a wish

Where are you in the creation of your own puzzle
How many pieces have you found
And do you like the picture that is appearing
Or are you constantly rearranging
Thinking it could never fit like this

I've been at it for a while
Picking up pieces while losing others
And I don't think the holes that appear
Could ever be filled

So what meaning do I subscribe to that
How do I add it all up to see the sum of my parts
How do I make sense of a story
When the only things constant
Are change
And that from start to finish
The name it carries is one I call my own

A life made up of memories
Collections of recollections
Inhaled and expelled like breaths
Passing to the ticking of clocks
Through tunneled passages of time

Sometimes I wonder
If they become ingrained as lines
Forming adornments on the halls of history
Curving and bending
And if someone walks along them
Recounting the tale of a universe
My story a story among billions of others
Just a chapter in the grand book of life

What would it be like
To read it all in one go
To see it all unfold
Neatly in order, row by row
And have the meaning laid out for you
What then would you know

Block the way
Of the body
Let Your Soul Blossom and Grow

Below the hanging tree I wept
Remembering the past.
There was a secret I still kept
Or – it kept me aghast.
A secret so ingrained in me,
An ache, a pain so deep,
A nightmare all day long for years
I could not fall asleep.

Beside the hanging tree I crept
My world – a shrunken hiss…
That fateful night I found the cure
Was in the air I kissed.

Beneath the hanging tree I dreamt
Of stranger things to come.
But all my dreams were swiftly swept
With shafts of morning sun.

Behind the hanging tree I stepped
And took the leap of faith.
And now I know you are to come
To this most sacred place.

The memory of ones we lost
Will never fade away
And neither will our love for them –
Not for a single day.

We might seem peaceful, fair enough,
But we have shown our teeth.
When freedom cried and duty called
We chose to clench our fists.

With every step along the way,
With every drop of blood
We learnt there was a price to pay.
We hardened our hearts.

With every cut and every bruise
And every shot we took
Our numbers grew, so long the queues
That everywhere you looked
You’d see the mothers and the sons,
The daughters and the dads,
Their fiery eyes, their daring hearts,
Their disregard for death.

With every blast and every hit
And every shrapnel piece,
The hopes went high, the dreams grew big –
Our dreams of lasting peace.

But first there was a war to win,
An ego to submit,
Old gods to cast aside for good
And fears to defeat.

A score of scores to be paid off,
A destiny to meet,
Old shackles to be shaken off,
A brave new world to greet.

And long and hard the battle went,
The toll is still unknown…
But to this day we reap the fruit
Of seeds of love we’ve sown.
…
And now, around the hanging tree
We join our hands
As we recall what made us free,
What brought peace to our lands.

I smile as I linger on –
A minute, maybe five
As I recall the war we fought,
The sacrifice, the lives.

I weep no more, so wild and free,
And all I ask of thee:
Are you, are you
Coming to the tree?