Death by Mike Tolhurst

There’s a breeze blowing cold through the Kaiwaka
And bringing rain to the sodden ground;
The wind of spring still carries its winter bite
Blowing through the eaves with a whistling sound.

Theres a touch of order in the garden now
The lawns are mowed up to gardens edge
The paths are swept clean of leaves
And the electric cutter has trimmed the hedge.

The house was painted again last summer
An offwhite colour to match the walls
The inside was tidied up
Ceilings lowered over polyurethaned floors.

The legal office is established there now
Clients coming to call at home
She says the place is no longer hers
And that she doesn’t have it as her own.

Truth is that life never stays the same
No matter how much you might want it to
And here at number 7 Bank Street
Things have changed for me and you.

The existence that we once had before
When children ruled the way we were
Is all at sea inside a vacuum  
And has disappeared never to return.

The passions gone to another place
That we have lost the directions for
And somehow in the dead of the night
We misplaced the key to each others door.  

So lets take the beauty of this place
The Tuis and the expansive views
And start afresh without remorse
Replacing the old with the fresh and new.    

Theres a saying that goes something like this
Enjoy what you can endure what you must
When alls said and done we get but one life
Then its ashes to ashes and dust to dust.