Okkervil River - Mermaid lyrics

So I said, “Men, pull her out of the water And then lay on hands And bind back her flippers and tail Until international waters. And there we'll feel What's human inside of her.” So she's chilly and slick On her hips where the scales meet with skin With a sickening flick of her tail, circling Her gills fill with cold, salty water She thrashes and twirls, her freezing fins fluttering And she's pretty, I think With her hair dark as ink, and her belly bone-white And her lips, of a slight, sea-shell pink, slightly part As she's tonguing the tub's rusty rim As the saltwater flows out and in All farewells to the land we knew well We'd never be touching again To the fields where we rambled and ran Farewell to our wives and children Let's stand on the deck and let's watch Them all disappearing And the days all float by In a daze, over waves, under sky And the weeks slowly leak into years The last islands are all left behind as we silently sail Until late some dark night, a wild wind starts to wail And our map blows away And our compa**es fail And it's out on the lost boiling black water Where I see her float out And she's so thin and so pale. I see her rise up And she's so fast and so fair. My hands meet And they press to a point in the air But my mouth fills with more panic than prayer And my skull fills with more color than care And my heart fills with love, with too much love to bear And I know that I'll stay, and that she'll always be there My hands sunk in cold sand Sea-weed strung through her hair