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.
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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