THE UNDERTOW
I’ve been calm
But now a storm’s a’ brewin’
And everything on land
Has transformed to ruin
Captain and crew
I sail away
Out to pillage and plunder
Because there’s hell to pay
A great darkness stains me
Yeah, and a great hurt pains me
I’m try’na find out what sustains me
Existence drains me
I’m ready to break free
Of this shell that contains me
I quest across these waters
But nothing yet explains…me
And waves of emotion
Wash over me
I’ve yearned to be free
This feeling has been burned into me
The Pisces
Has returned to the sea
I’ve witnessed civilization’s
Rise and fall
And now it seems that I’m enthralled
By the Siren’s call
She guides me
Though I move at my own leisure
No other man can measure the value
Of my own treasure
I’ll rock a fat gold chain
Like an albatross
Until the day I’m crucified
Upon a Christopher Cross
And waves of emotion
Wash over me
Too much pressure
On my mind
Everyday
I’m on the grind
I just need
A moment’s time
To live my life
On the line
Don’t know
If I’ll be around tomorrow
Been treadin’ water
But right now I need to drown my sorrow
And I’m try’na
Make effective usage
Of my days
So I’ll never feel next to useless
The worry
That the stress produces
Makes some people
Wanna g’wan put they necks in nooses
I just refuse it
Life won’t leave me hangin’
So I’m not slangin’
And I’m not bangin’
My people bust metal
But when the dust settles
They realize that them rocks they were servin’
Were just pebbles
In a pond far beyond
The scope of the dope
A lotta people couldn’t cope
Fell off that slippery slope
Tried to climb so high
But that stairway’s steep
Made the leap with no spring
For the tide was neap
Created an ocean of emotion
Wit’ the tears you weap
They tried to drag me down deep
Where the Leviathan sleeps
But I swim
For solid ground
I ain’t gonna drown
You can’t keep a good man down
And waves of emotion
Wash over me
I’d reach in my treasure chest
To give you my heart of gold
But it has sunken so deep
To the ocean floor of my soul
I’ve been a pirate of dark water
Seen the world and its sights
Just to fill up my days
And to empty my nights
And waves of emotion
Wash over me
I refuse
To be an orderly slave
I’d rather leap
To my watery grave
And I let the waves
Wash over me
(I started writing this in 2009 while on a trip to Rewal, Poland. It was inspired by a night-time walk on a beach that meets the Baltic Sea. I feel like I had a mini “dark night of the soul” during that walk.)
