The Hunter’s Knife


Maybe it’s not what I wanted
But what I possessed,
Sheep in the paddock
Couldn’t be more blessed.
A slaughter in the killing yards
Gave me a name,
Should’ve watched out
For the blame.

Take a nice trip
To the end of a cliff,
At the base
I find my way.

Seeing this hunter’s knife
Cut through my veins,
I’m a little bit shaken
But still there’s no shame.
To survive I would plead
Just before I begin to bleed,
Take a trip to the end of a cliff
Before I begin to see.

Couldn’t believe it if I tried
That life is just seasons,
There are many sides
A wave in the leaving.
The reindeer shot through the night
Escaping every sweeping curve of life,
Loneliness is a reason
A forever changing season.

---

During 1994, I was in my last year of High School at Campion College in Gisborne, New Zealand. During this year I remember signing up for the Chemistry class but swapped over to Physics at some point, probably because Chemistry was too boring (only to be disappointed by the new study of pulleys and weights instead of worm-holes and quantum mechanics!). During a lesson while sitting at the bench/tables, I wrote this entire piece. Up to this point I had already written the songs 'The Resting Place', 'Maple Dream', 'Rosewood' and 'Hardstone Bridge' which had begun formulating a concept album in my head of a man who returns to the farm life after city-acclimatisation as an adult, but things go horribly wrong. This song is to be presented in a spoken-word format with music in the background. During the following years I wrote a few more songs that would finalise the story and songs.


*Note: 'The Hunter's Knife' from 1995 is an unrelated song.