Mermaid

Mermaid - Okkervil River

So I said Men pull her out of the water

And then lay on hands

And bind back her flippers and tail

Until international waters And there we'll feel

What's human inside of her

So she's chilly and slick

On her hips where the scales

Meet with skin With a sickening

Flick of her tail circling

Her gills fill with cold salty water She thrashes

And twirls her freezing fins fluttering

But she's pretty I think

With her hair dark as ink and her belly bone-white

And her lips of a slight sea-shell pink slightly part

As she's tonguing the tub's rusty rim

As the saltwater flows out and in

All farewells to the land we knew well

We'd never be touching again

To the fields where we rambled and ran

Farewell to our wives and children

Let's stand on the deck and let's watch

Them all disappearing

And the days all float by

In a daze over waves under sky

And the weeks slowly leak into years

The last islands are all left behind as we silently sail

Until late some dark night a wild wind starts to wail

And our map blows away

And our compasses fail

And it's out on the lost boiling black water

Where I see her float out

And she's so thin and so pale I see her rise up

And she's so fast and so fair My hands meet

And they press to a point in the air

But my mouth fills with more panic than prayer

And my skull fills with more color than care

And my heart fills with love with too much love to bear

And I know that I'll stay and that she'll always be there

My hands sunk in cold sand

Sea-w**d strung through her hair