Ocean Song

Paul eases into the driveway and kills the engine

Sits for a spell, staring out the windshield

Down the hood to the stalled garage door

Nothing ever works around here, he says to himself

The ignition births the keys into his hand

He opens the door, the world is suddenly different

He senses something terrible awaiting

A loose thread, a worsening

In that moment he turns to the sky

He notices that it's darker now than it used to be

It's darker now at this hour, than it was last week

Within or beyond himself

A voice more primal, is urging him

To go, run, to go, run

To go, run, to go, run

Go, run, go, run

Go, run, go, run

Across the loose brick, he prepares himself

For the evening greeting

But his inability to shake the warning

Sees him grinding his teeth

Paul turns to the right, tracing the unkempt

Bushes aligning the house

And the beds cracking beneath

He reaches over to uncouple the latch

And sweat forms on his brow and the back of his neck

And years of servitude are at last present

He can feel them in his bones

And Paul is overwhelmed with the urge to cry

To crumple down to his knees and release

But pride gives him a shove

Nursing him across the muddied, neglected lawn

He inhales through his nose

There is so much more to be done

Stopped in his tracks

His youngest child, telling his father

To go, to run, to go, to run

To go, to run, to go, to run

He explodes through the backyard

Like he's shot from a gun

(Go, run, go, run)

Clearing the fence in one leap

Landing in a heap in the alley

Between the neighbouring houses

(Go, run, go, run)

Body broken by nothing, just falls

Knocking over trash as he makes his way

Sprinting like some wild animal

A blur beneath the streetlamps

Overhead, a terror-scream

Everything he has is within him

His shoes come up from off his feet

The shadow haunts him for several yards

The ghosts of what he was, desperate to keep up until gone

Now the road, punching upwards into his soft, naked feet

He is never-knowing, never again

Forever flowing, no more waiting

His muscles burn, deciding to run till he can run no more

To find everything he can find

To know, to see for himself

If there is an ocean beyond the waves

Beyond the waves

To know, to see for himself

If there is an ocean beyond the waves, an ocean

To know, to see for himself

If there is an ocean beyond the waves

Beyond the waves

To know, to see for himself

If there is an ocean beyond the waves

Beyond the waves

To know, to see for himself

If there is an ocean beyond the waves

Beyond the waves