RUNNING WATER

He of the sea-rat's beard

Eagle eye and scale claw

Testimony of a farewell to men

Anchors away boy, anchors away.

 

Dark sea night and brine green tide

Vampire running water's bride

Carnival Ferris wheel lights the way,

Lights the way.

 

Her white dress wet with sea-tears shines,

Blows pale and cotton in the moonlight;

Running water bars the way,

Shocks and convulses with cascade of change.

 

Their love on dust of dead time dines,

Grows long in shadows on floors of night.

Fading by the light of day...white lite repulses...

vanish into smoke

And oblivion unknown

 

Until the night returns

With longing, and tears,

And visions of a loved one,

Far away.

 

See the water run,

Changing,

Rearranging grains of sand,

Never bringing in the tide.

 

Her white dress wet with sea-tears shines,

Blows pale and cotton after midnight;

The sea-rat groans and shakes

As cursed warmth flows from his eyes.

 

The ocean winds blow cold

And ripple time across the moonlit waves;

These lost from times of old

Are only new ones born in modern graves;

 

A union killed by circumstance,

The sea-rat and the sailor's daughter;

Two vampires trapped on distant shores

Share only tears

 

And running water.

 

G.S., '83

 

Kenny Ryman: synthesized sea sounds, keyboard loops

GS: guitar, vocal

 

Photo: Chris Gruenwedel, altered by GS

 

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