Mermaid
Okkervil River

So I said, “Men, pull her out of the water.
And then lay on hands,
and bind back her flippers and tail
until international waters. And there we’ll feel
what’s human inside of her.”

So she’s chilly and slick
on her hips where the scales
meet with skin. With a sickening
flick of her tail, circling,
her gills fill with cold, salty water. She thrashes
and twirls, her freezing fins fluttering.

And she’s pretty, I think,
with her hair dark as ink, and her belly bone-white.
And her lips, of a slight, sea-shell pink, slightly part
as she’s tonguing the tub’s rusty rim,
as the saltwater flows out and in.

All farewells to the land we knew well
we’d never be touching again.
To the fields where we rambled and ran.
Farewell to our wives and children.
Let’s stand on the deck and let’s watch
them all disappearing.

And the days all float by
in a daze, over waves, under sky.
And the weeks slowly leak into years.
The last islands are all left behind as we silently sail.

Until late some dark night, a wild wind starts to wail.
And our map blows away.
And our compasses fail.
And it’s out on the lost boiling black water
where I see her float out.
And she’s so thin and so pale. I see her rise up.
And she’s so fast and so fair. My hands meet,
and they press to a point in the air,

but my mouth fills with more panic than prayer.
And my skull fills with more color than care.
And my heart fills with love, with too much love to bear.
And I know that I’ll stay, and that she’ll always be there,
my hands sunk in cold sand,
sea-weed strung through her hair.


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Lyrics by Okkervil River

  A Favor   A Girl In Port   A Glow   A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene   A King And A Queen   A Leaf   A Stone   All the Time Every Day   And I Have Seen the World of Dreams   Another Radio Song   Antarctica Starts Here (John Cale)   April Anne (John Phillips)   Auntie Alice   Black   Black Nemo   Black Sheep Boy   Black Sheep Boy (Black Sheep Boy Appendix)   Black Sheep Boy #4   Black Sheep Boy 4   Blanket And Crib   Blood Gatherer   Blue Tulip   Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On The Roof Of Th...   Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On The Roof Of Th...   Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of th...   Call Yourself Renee   Calling and Not Calling My Ex   Comes Indiana Through the Smoke   Constance   Days Spent Floating   Dead Dog Song   Dead Faces   Do the Crawl (CBS October 22, 1988)   Do What You Gotta Do   Down Down The Deep River   Down the river of golden dreams   Dreadful Wind and Rain   Dry Bones   For Real   For Real [Multimedia Track]   For The Captain   For The Enemy   From a Cutlass Cruiser   Frontman in Heaven   Get Big   Girl In Port, A   Give Me the Night   Gold Faces   Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down   Goodnight, Irene   Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene, A   Hanging From a Hit   Happy Hearts   He Passes Number Thirty-Three   I Came Here To Say I'm Going Away (Serge Gainsbour...   I Guess We Lost   I Want To Know (Charles F. Olsen/Ed Sanders)   I'm in Love with Susan Smith   In A Radio Song   In Someone’s Backyard   It Ends With A Fall   It Was My Season   It's So Nice To Get Stoned   John Allyn Smith Sails   John Allyn Smith Sails (Demo)   Judey on a Street   Just Give Me Time   Kansas City   Kathy Keller   Lady Liberty   Last Love Song For Now   Lay of the Last Survivor   Lido Pier Suicide Car   Life Like Like Life   Lines   Listening To Otis Redding At Home During Christmas   Lost Coastlines   Love to a Monster   Maine Island Lovers   Mary on a Wave   Millionaire   Missing Children   Money Changes Everything   Moonshiner   Murderess   My Bad Days   Nancy (Orange Mothers)   No Easy Way Down   No Hidden Track   No Key, No Plan   O, Dana   Oh, Precious   Oh, the Wind and Rain   Okkervil River R.I.P.   Okkervil River Song   Omie Wise   Omie Wise   On A Balcony   On Tour with Zykos   One Soul Less on Your Fiery List (The Triffids cov...   Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe   Pink-Slips   Piratess   Plan D (Bill Fay cover)   Plus Ones   Pop Lie   Pulled Up the River   Red   Rider   Riot Act   Savannah Smiles   Seas Too Far To Reach   See See Rider   She Would Look for Me   Show Yourself   Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (Randy Ne...   Singer Songwriter   So Come Back, I Am Waiting   Solo (Sandy Denny)   Song About A Star   Song of Our So-Called Friend   Stand Ins, Pt. 1   Starry Stairs   Stay Young   The Industry   The Blonde In The Bleachers (Joni Mitchell)   The End of the Innocence   The Latest Toughs   The Next Four Months   The Rise   The Room I'm Hiding In   The Valley   The Velocity Of Saul At The Time Of His Conversion   The War Criminal Rises And Speaks   This House Is Not a Home   Title Track   Unless It Kicks   Unless It's Kicks   Unravel (Björk cover)   Wake and Be Fine   Walked Out On A Line   Walking Without Frankie   We Need a Myth   Weave Room Blues   Westfall   What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?   Where The Spirit Left Us   White   White Shadow Waltz   Whole Wide World   Willow Tree   Yellow   You Can't Hold The Hand Of A Rock And Roll Man   Your Past Life as a Blast   Your Past Life as a Blast

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