I know you must have drowned at sea
I know I’ll never see a man again!
Or can you hear me call to you
a tiny voice that glides upon
the huge expanse of ocean & the wind?
Bowed-down men, acquit this place
Leave my mother alone
Waiting on a man who will never come home
And what about me, in suspension,
Neither yet a lady or a man?
The velvet of the afternoon the waterfall of curtains
Cuts the shrieking black of ocean from the land
Shall I bow my head like a copper wire?
Sit & cry like a lamb?
Shall I sit sit sit until my ashes blow with shame upon the land?
I will craft a boat from birch trees
Fit it with twenty men
On the wild wild seas we will search for you
For one brief year my friend
Odysseus my father
On the surging breast of the sea
Are you pale-faced & drifting
or crushed like a man upon the floor of the sea?
My ship will wear a lavender flag
I’ll be a soldier too
Because I want to make love but I can’t make love
Want to make love but I can’t make love
Want to make love but I can’t make love
In the in the wandering shade of you.
Through the languid veil of time
I guess the time has come to rise again
So let the ladies run & hide
We’re leaving with the thunder & the wind
And if we come back empty handed
If our hopes have crumbled too
Then I will splice my ship and build a fire for you.