There’s a million miles between me
And the love of a life I have lost,
Had my fill of krill and seaweed,
Now on these lonely shores have I washed,
Upon hundreds of miles of dead rock,
Sunlight filling my blistering eyes,
All while high up above my head flock
Gulls and albatross, circling the skies,
Sure as any old seadog’ll tell it –
Now I’m certain it isn’t a lie –
When you’re dying, the seabirds can smell it,
Now I’m cursing the gods as I cry:
Can’t you hear me, darling, calling out to thee?
Forget me not! Don’t let me rot!
Ninety million miles between me
And the sun that I’ve come to despise,
Shining brilliant on the seaweed,
Slowly burning two holes in my eyes,
Not a single soul surviving,
From my shipwreck, I’m surely the last,
Ninety billion neurons firing,
Not a single one’s up to the task
Of devising a means of survival,
On this island of nothing but salt,
Perhaps I’d feel suicidal,
If I felt any feelings at all,
As the night falls, it’s a mercy,
For the light in my eyes has all left,
And if I wasn’t so thirsty,
I might finally be able to rest,
But the air’s so cold, it hurts me,
And my misery’s only prolonged,
When a voice so otherworldly
Sings an eerie, mysterious song:
Can’t you hear me calling, poor thing lost at sea?
I’m waiting here! Nothing to fear!
Do my desperate ears deceive me?
Has my sanity finally snapped?
Has reality ruptured completely?
Could my mind have imagined all that?
When exhaustion eventually takes me,
Still my slumber is anxious and short,
As I dream of endless waking,
Comes a memory haunting my thoughts,
Of a voice so otherworldly –
It was real, now of that I am sure –
And it scares me more than scurvy,
For I fear that I’ve heard tell before
Of a creature that looks girly,
As a maiden green seamen might crave,
Though her locks be bright and curly,
In disguise is a demon depraved,
In unlucky waters lurks she,
With a song that will make you her slave,
And on cursed nights most murky,
The wind whispers it out of the waves,
Those who hear are damned most surely,
Without hope that they’ll ever be saved,
For she drags ‘em screaming early,
To that terrible watery grave!
To that terrible watery grave!
Can’t you hear me, darling? Come and see to me,
I’m all alone, come say hello!
Down here with me, darling, now your pain is over!
You’re set free, your soul to me,
Eternally, beneath the sea!
There’s a million miles between me
And the surface I used to call home,
Hard to tell if I’m still dreaming,
Seems so long now that I’ve been alone,
No one living ever sees me,
And my fate is forever unknown,
Still, I’m always smiling keenly,
Since my flesh has been stripped to the bone.
