Marty Willson-Piper - Wreck (A Sea Shanty) lyrics

There's a twisted piece of jagged metal

A broken show and a rusting kettle

A bed of sand in which to lie

A clear blue sea in which to die

And as the breath slips from your lungs

There's no more words on your swollen tongue

And fishes pick your melting flesh

Living on your recent death

Dawn has promised you your dreams

And mentioned not your unheard screams

Set your course in your sky blue boat

You couldn't guess you wouldn't float

Who could sink such pretty craft

You jeered and rolled and shrugged and laughed

How vicious can a colored reef

Bear its sharp and yellow teeth

Too beautiful day to die

Too memorable to be forgotten

A sea of tears to wave goodbye

A silent wreck to haunt the bottom

The ripples whimper on the surface

Jellyfish, transparent purses

Their sting the strength of hoarded gold

The gifts they'd buy remain unsold

So what's the worth of the dead's desires

When waterlogged are life's cold fires

With seaweed hair and barnacle bones

In the powerless court on a seashell throne

Back on land your loves ones' wait

For news that saunters in too late

Their salty tears mix with the sea

As they wait for all eternity

And later all that is recovered

A defiant ring that graced your lover

But to the sea now he is wed

In a ceremony of the dead