Paroles de Wreck (A Sea Shanty)

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