Tiny Fish For Japan

(album: From Fresh Water - 1984)

Where Patterson Creek's muddy waters run down
Past the penny arcades, by the harbour downtown
All the old Turtlebacks rust in the rain
Like they never will leave there again

But leave there they will in the hours before dawn
Slip out in the darkness without word or song
For a few more years yet they will work while they can
To catch tiny fish for Japan

No white fish or trout here, we leave them alone
The inspectors raise hell if we take any home
What kind of fisherman can't eat his catch
Or call what he's taken his own?

But the plant works three shifts now. There's plenty of pay
We ship seventeen tons of this garbage each day
If we want to eat fish, then we'll open a can
And catch tiny fish for Japan

In the Norfolk Hotel over far too much beer
The old guys remember when the water ran clear
No poisons with names that we can't understand
And no tiny fish for Japan

So the days run together. Each one is the same
And it's good that the smelt have no lovelier name
It's all just a job now, we'll work while we can
To catch tiny fish for Japan
And we'll catch tiny fish for Japan