This is what I recall of the Maori Battalion soldiers returning after WW2. The battalion were a huge part of Maori culture of the post war period and soldiers were welcomed back to every marae in Aotearoa.
Home At Last
1.
I did not see them go
But neat uniform
Khaki from neck to ankle wraps
Then polished boots
Beret tilted laconically
To a victory salute
We're home we're home at last we're home
That's what I saw in 46.
2
What a week that was
Two only another mourned in Crete
They came by taxi to end of road
Then horse and gig to old marae
Hall and lean to kauta
No different from when they left.
3.
Blind mother saw son with fingers
Another with dimming eyes
Saw handsome shadow
Tears tangi speeches and waiata
Welcomed them and farewelled son in Crete.
4.
In lean to men and boys
Heard war stories from Greece, Crete, Egypt
Libya, Sicily, Monte Casino, Firenze,
And Trieste at last.
Yeah they said so casually
We saw action here and there
And R and R in Cairo
And E hoa ma
28 shot at German planes with rifles
5.
They even showed us shrapnel wounds
No worse than rugby scars
But
The wounds of heart mind and psyche
At horrors seen
Exploding mayhem nightmare fears
Wounded screams and pain
Machine gun body halved
Remained unsaid
Just laughing soldiers home again at last.
6.
Us kids thought war fun
Cowboy and Indian movie like
Boys on horse back
Cap gun shoot outs after school.
7.
But wounds of war
Aue
Showed much later
Long after keg was drunk
And war songs slurred away
To a silent end.
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