There's a twisted piece of jagged metal
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A broken show and a rusting kettle
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A bed of sand in which to lie
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A clear blue sea in which to die
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And as the breath slips from your lungs
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There's no more words on your swollen tongue
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And fishes pick your melting flesh
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Living on your recent death
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Dawn has promised you your dreams
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And mentioned not your unheard screams
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Set your course in your sky blue boat
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You couldn't guess you wouldn't float
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Who could sink such pretty craft
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You jeered and rolled and shrugged and laughed
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How vicious can a colored reef
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Bear its sharp and yellow teeth
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Too beautiful day to die
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Too memorable to be forgotten
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A sea of tears to wave goodbye
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A silent wreck to haunt the bottom
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The ripples whimper on the surface
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Jellyfish, transparent purses
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Their sting the strength of hoarded gold
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The gifts they'd buy remain unsold
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So what's the worth of the dead's desires
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When waterlogged are life's cold fires
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With seaweed hair and barnacle bones
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In the powerless court on a seashell throne
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Back on land your loves ones' wait
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For news that saunters in too late
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Their salty tears mix with the sea
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As they wait for all eternity
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And later all that is recovered
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A defiant ring that graced your lover
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But to the sea now he is wed
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In a ceremony of the dead
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Wreck (A Sea Shanty)
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| Marty Willson-Piper |
