The Ocean

(album: Mortal City - 1996)

When I went to your town
On the wide open shore
Oh, I must confess, I was drawn
I was drawn to the ocean
I thought it spoke to me
It said, "Look at us
We're not churches, not schools
Not skating ponds, swimming pools
And we have lost people, haven't we though?"
Oh, that's what the ocean can know of a body

And that's when I came back to town
This town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are
You don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming, back from the ocean

I went back to the ocean today
With my books and my papers
I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly
Oh, the ocean said, "What are you trying to find
I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors
I've spat out their keepsakes
Oh, it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean"

But the ocean can't come to this town
This town is a song about you
You don't know how lucky you are
You don't know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean

And the ones that can know you so well
Are the ones that can swallow you whole
I have a good and I have an evil
I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean

I didn't go back today
I wanted to show you
That I was more land than water
I went to pick flowers
I brought them to you
Look at me, look at them, with their salt up the stem
But you frowned when I smiled and I tried to arrange them

You said, "Let me tell you the song of this town"
You said, "Everything closes at five
After that, well you just got the bars

"You don't know how precious you are
Walking around with your little shoes dangling
I am the one who lives with the ocean
It's where we came from, you know
And sometimes I just want to go back
After a day, we drink 'til we're drowning

Walk to the ocean, wade in with our workboots
Wade in our workboots, try to finish the job
You don't know how precious you are
I am the one who lives with the ocean
You don't know how, I am the one
You don't know how, I am the one"