A Bloody Morning

Started drinking on the job
And the job became easy
Keep my hands upon the wheel
And my 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

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 capsize 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

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 capsize every ship upon the sea