Song #72 Don't Change Your Mind

 There was a long stretch in the 90s where I wrote very few songs, and I've just guessed the dates for many songs. But I know this one was written just before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 - so perhaps 2002.

DON’T CHANGE YOUR MIND

 

One day we’ll all be gone

Some day there’ll be a me-less dawn

Do you wonder – what will remain?

Of that crazy guy from down the road?

 

Who for 10 years was always there

Smoking, gutter bound

A child-man in his own time

Already a statue in my mind

 

Or the two guys with hip long hair

As twins they walk, heading somewhere

Each day the same routine

Who will remember them when they’re gone?

 

There’s a battle for terror in every Western land

Coalition of the willing looking for their man

Guns in central Asia pointed at the man

Who detonates bombs with a wave of his hand

 

Meanwhile down on the sand

Adelaide cruises on

Sunsets end our days

I come home and find you there

 

Whatever things may come

Home means peace with you

Safe harbour for another day

I hope you don’t wake and change your mind

 

Bombs explode while Baghdad boils

Some still say it’s a battle for oil

Papers freak us out; mayhem all around

Terror Australis – where are you bound?

 

One day we’ll all be gone

Please hold me and keep me near

In our safe harbour

Please don’t wake and change your mind

 

I hope you don’t wake and change

I hope you don’t wake and change

I hope you don’t wake and change  

Your mind

 

(M Coghlan circa 2000)

Commentary: written around the time the Coalition of the Willing (US, UK, Australia) believed Iraq was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and there was much chest-thumping and war mongering among Western allies. Clearly too I'm beginning to contemplate mortality. It's also a love song;  a song of thanks to Elizabeth.