Mermaid - Okkervil River

Mermaid (美人鱼) - Okkervil River
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
But 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 compasses 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-w**d strung through her hair