The Drunken Boat

I laid on my back in the drunken boat
And I watched the tops of passing trees
Costumed in craning rubber masks
And locust-bitten leaves
The clouds beyond they crouched by too
But only at half speed
And memory drank from the horizon
While my eyes dried in the breeze

I was fleeing the bleeding festival
And the circus on dry land
The trial was finally over there
And I still had both my hands
I had only lifted a loaf of bread
But they said I'd stolen someone's child
Now my days are spent out in the open
While my dreams bounced around the prison yard

Salty waves that blend and break
Will take me to my home
I let go of the rope and cut the anchor
A sunburned path of foam and tide
On a bed of morning mist
Has lured my drunken boat into the water

Seabirds flew forward across the sun
Wings woven to the gales
In a syncronized dance they'd always known
Even before they crawled from their shells
I asked the boat, "Will you carry me
Until the wind chews up your sails?"
And when the night grew black the gulls attacked
And pecked it full of stars

I had flowed finally to the sea
But I had begun on the longest river
Where I watched my life stand still behind me
To be eaten by the rain and the kudzu
Now I was splashing passed the point
Of grief or even hunger
And just as I closed my eyes to sleep
Lightning cracked the swollen mirror

Salty waves that blend and break
Will take me to my home
I let go of the rope and cut the anchor
A sunburned path of foam and tide
On a bed of morning mist
Has lured my drunken boat into the water

I woke up on a drifting plant
Shackled to a splinter
Faces frowned in the clouds above
But a calm followed the disaster
I had no water nor any crumbs
And I was shaken by my own laughter
Why waste time learning to swim
When it's how you float that matters?

What else can I tell you, friend?
Of course, I didn't live
My story is an apparition
Another sailor's myth
But don't let the steadfast earthworm catch you
Sleeping on the ground
Lay down with the drunken boat
Where gold is scattered all around

Salty waves that blend and break
Will take me to my home
I let go of the rope and cut the anchor
A sunburned path of foam and tide
On a bed of morning mist
Has lured my drunken boat into the water