Paul Durcan - Parents lyrics

A child's face is a drowned face: Her parents stare down at her asleep Estranged from her by a sea: She is under the sea And they are above the sea: If she looked up she would see them As if locked out of their own home, Their mouths open, Their foreheads furrowed: Pursed-up orifices of fearful fish Their big ears are fins behind gla**: And in her sleep she is calling out to them Father, Father Mother, Mother But they cannot hear her: She is inside the sea And they are outside the sea: And through the night, stranded, they stare At the drowned, drowned face of their child.