The wild wild sea
Sting
I saw it again this evening
Black sail in a pale yellow sky
And just as before, in a moment
It was gone where the grey gulls fly.
If ti happens again I shall worry
That only a strange ship could fly
And my sanity scanned the horizon
In the light of a darkening sky.
That night as I walked in my slumber
I waded into the sea strand
And I swam with the moon and her lover
Until I lost sight of the land.
I swam 'til the night became morning
Black sail in a reddening sky
Found myself on the deck of a rolling ship
So far where no grey gulls fly.
All around me was silence
As if mocking my frail human hopes
And a questionmark hung in the canvas
For the wind that had died in the ropes.
I may have slept for an hour
I may have slept for a day
For I woke in a bed of white linen
And the sky was the colour of clay.
At first just the rustle of canvas
And the gentlest breath on my face
Then a galloping line of white horses
Said that soon we were in for a race.
The gentle sigh turned to a howling
And the grey sky she angered to black
As my anxious eyes searched the horizon
And the gathering sea at my back.
Did I see the shade of a sailor
On the bridge through the wheelhouse pale
Holding fast to the wheel of the rocking ship
As I squinted my eyes in the rain
For the shop had turned into the wind
All for the storm to race
And underneath the sailor's hat
I saw my father's face.
If a prayer today is spoken
Please offer it for me
When the bridge to heaven is broken
And you're lost on the wild wild sea.
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