The Ocean

Dar Williams

When I went to your town on the wide open shore

Oh I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean

I thought it spoke to me, it said, "Look at us,

We're not churches, not schools, not skating ponds, swimming pools

And we have lost people, haven't we though?"

Oh, that's what the ocean can know of a body

And that's when I came back to town, this town is a song about you

You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you

You are the welcoming back from the ocean.



I went back to the ocean today

With my books and my papers I went to the rocks by the ocean

But the weather changed quickly, oh the ocean said

"What are you trying to find, I don't care, I'm not kind

I've bludgeoned your sailors, I've spat out their keepsakes

Oh it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean,"

But the ocean can't come to this town, this town is a song about you

You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you

You are the welcoming back from the ocean.



And the ones that can know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole.

I have a good and I have an evil, I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing

You are the welcoming back from the ocean.



I didn't go back today

I wanted to sho wyou that I was more land than water

I went to pick flowers I brought them to you

Look at me, look at them, with their salt up the stem

But you frowned when I smiled and I tried to arrange them

You said, "Let me tell you the song of this town"

You said, "Everything closes at five. After that, well, you just got the bars

You don't know how precious you are, walking around with your little shoes dangling

I am the one who lives with the ocean.



It's where we came from, you know, and sometimes I just want to go back

After a day, we drink til we're drowning, walk to the ocean, wade in with our workboots

Wade in our workboots, try to finish the job.

You don't know how pre