A Bloody Morning

Started drinking on the job And the job became easy Keep my hands upon the wheel And eyes to the sea Our two-masted yellow schooner Seemed to need some course correction And it may have looked suspicious But the sun was on my shoulders And my ginger hair Lady Virtue's Lace is bowing in the wind And I slouch in my chair, thinking "Who gives a shit about them? When did they ever give a shit about me?" All around my lower ribs Spider veins are forming I've mistaken self-indulgence for self-care But do not be scared Surely some disaster will descend And equalize us A crisis will unify the godless And the fearless, and the righteous I am knocked to the hull As the schooner hits a reef beneath the surface And we list, and I fall And the passengers are tumbling over railing Overboard and into sea (And yet) (And yet) In a certain slant of light The feeling will hit me Like a man against the waves And a violent wind Waking up in a bloody morning With the warmth of his forgiveness around me The shared dream left me shaking The memory is threatening to scuttle Every ship upon the sea And upon the surf the passengers Are scrambling and swimming And my vision is unsteady And my head is scribbling, scribbling And the next is a blur I'm crawling through the waves to reach a woman Saint Christopher! An underwater starscape, an escape I cannot swim I cannot swim But in a certain slant of light The feeling will hit me Like a man against the waves And a violent wind Waking up in a bloody morning With the warmth of his forgiveness around me The shared dream left me shaking The memory is threatening to scuttle Every ship upon the sea --- A Bloody Morning - Owen Pallett