The Southern Cross

Out the window,

On a still summer's night.

I stand and gaze,

To that which looks over us all.

Above us it sits,

Reminding us all who we are.

Our shadows never look the same,

Under the formidable night sky.

No matter what,

It is there, it is ours.

Sailing alone,

On a winters night.

Winds and tide,

Rise around me.

Lost all sense of direction,

Not knowing where to go.

To which I look above me,

For you to carry me home.

A twinkling guide to the homeland,

I'm lost without you.

Fall to my knees in the rain,

I think I died this time.

It's thunder and it's lightning,

There's terror in my bloodshot eyes.

But the clouds open through the storm,

Staring down at me, is that what illuminates.

And of all the things we swore we never would forget,

It was you.

Ancestral journeys across the ocean,

You guided our forefathers here.

To give us what we have now,

Through hardship, and spilt blood.

The stars above us shine so bright,

Always have, and always will.

The Southern Cross,

You guide us home.

To the land of the long white cloud,

Aotearoa.