Front line – fighting for my country

Should feel proud to be a soldier – doing the right thing

Only a teenager – cabinet maker apprentice

Waiting to see if we win

February 1942 – Prisoner of war

“Bloody Japs” show no mercy –work us till our clothes wear away

Built the bridge over the river Kwai – didn’t they make a film about that?

Nothing to eat but rice everyday

Amoebic dysentery – watching your guts fall out between your legs

“They’ve dug your grave on the hillside” – the soldiers told me

Survived the night – the grave was filled by another body

Will I live past today? There’s no guarantee

End of the war – everything back to normal?

Can’t sleep – nightmares of the horrors I have seen

Rows of bodies – stinking, rotten, frying in the heat

Death in Burma was the daily routine

The feeling of wanting it all to end – to wipe out the memories I have

Ill because of the injustice seen – wasted lives, broken families, shattered dreams

Mental house – rows of bars across the windows

Only the psychiatrists to hear your screams

Sunlight on my face – vision of a woman

Take her to the pictures – “she gives me something to live for”

Get married, start a family, get a house – be happy together

Begin to forget about the ‘war to end war’

Work as a handy man –fixing things, making them better

In the dissection room – amongst the broken body parts

Fixing doors and windows – everything gets damaged

Remove yourself from it; it’s just brains, lungs and hearts

One night, out of nothing –my life is shattered

She turns to me in bed – says she has a pain

Call the ambulance – wait for hours

Despite the agony she was in she didn’t complain

“Walk to the stretcher please” – she can’t move you idiots

Insensitive paramedics – hurrying us along

Hospital, bright lights, and harsh reality – she should be home in bed

This isn’t where we belong

Final moments went too quickly – hold her hand as she leaves me

Like the flick of a switch – her life ceased

In a coffin – the woman I love gone forever

Her body is gone but her soul released

See her at night – shadow on the carpet

Pain in my chest from grief – “It’s cancer” they tell me

Eating me up from the inside – I want to fight it

Battle and defeat the internal enemy

Everyday say the prayer – I’ve said it since childhood

‘Father, lead me day by day – ever in thine own sweet way’

I’m not religious – just seeking spiritual order

Finding normality when I pray

The drugs don’t work – it’s just a ticking time bomb

Counting down the hours till it makes one more body.