On Every Anzac Day
Ghosts and memories are loitering still in the corridors of time
There's sorrow, smoke and stories in the barracks of my mind
I'm with him still in the trenches, I can see his dark, brown eyes
And his courage gave me courage when I was sure we were going to die
I asked him once why he volunteered for that hellhole far away
To fight for someone else's king and the land they took away
He said "One invading mob's too many" and then he walked away
And I lost him in the crowds waving flags on the side of the road — like every Anzac Day
From Murray Bridge and Mundrabilla, from Naracoote and Perth
First Australian station hands, shearers, gangers, clerks...
And there was no black, there was no white, just a dirty khaki brown
And on our upturned slouch hat brims, we all wore the "Rising Sun"
Soldiers, brothers, all Australians, we had no time for race
When the bullets are whining past your head, you're all just shades of grey
He kept his medals in their box in a drawer — he tucked them well away
But he'd pull them out and put them on and put them back again — on every Anzac Day
Armienters and Flanders, Tarin Kowt and Salamau-Lae
Amiens and Morotai, Long Tan, Dispersal Bay
Somalia, Crete and Kapyong, Iraq and the Solomons
Paschendaele, Maprik and Tarakan — they were there — the first Australians
And when the show was over and we made it back to Australia's shores
From Pozieres and Herleville Wood, Benghazi and Fremicourt
We drifted back into our lives, and we all tried to hide the scars
Of the tears and fears and terrors that still tracked us down the years
He tried to join the RSL but the bastards wouldn't let him in
They didn't see a soldier, just a first Australian
And I wonder what it was that we fought for and what it was we gave away
There's reconciliation still to come — on every Anzac Day
So when the sun sets in the evening, when the dawn lights up the sky
We remember those first Australians, who joined and fought and died
From the missions, bush and station country, towns and Torres Straits
We remember the fighting First Australians — now — and on every Anzac Day
