I am a man upon the land Cold and slender as a secret river And glamour folds within my hand Like a salmon skin of beaten silver My little fish slip off your skin And leave it in the tide for gulls to plunder And if you wish to walk or swim Let there be nothing in the world to hinder I cannot walk among your kin For after water, land seems so much harder But I will fall from wandering To land on beaten sand and fragile water My little fish slip off your skin And leave it in the tide for gulls to plunder And if you wish to walk or swim Let there be nothing in the world to hinder There are other gifts than silver Like another word for lover If we only hold each other We are beaten sand and fragile water You know the ocean will bleach our bones You know the burning sun will melt the boulders Don't mourn my shadow among the stones For after winter, spring seems somehow colder But as the ocean courts the strand 'Til he becomes the grit that surges in her So generations may understand We are all beaten sand and fragile water My little fish slip off your skin And leave it in the tide for gulls to plunder And if you wish to walk or swim Let there be nothing in the world to hinder My little fish slip off your skin And leave it in the tide for gulls to plunder And if you wish to walk or swim Let there be nothing in the world to hinder There are other gifts than silver Like another word for lover If we only hold each other We are beaten sand and fragile water There are other gifts for silver Like another word for lover If we only hold each other We are beaten sand and fragile water We are beaten sand and fragile water