So I said, man 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 All that'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 filled with cold salty water And 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 seashell pink Lightly part as she's tonguing the tub's rusty rim As the salt water it flows out again Oh, farewell is to the land we know well We'll never be touching again To 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 And the days 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 She's so thin and so pale I see her rise up 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 colour than care And my heart fills with love, with too much love to bear And I know that I'll stay, that she'll always be there My hands suck in cold, sad seaweed strung through her hair