I'll tell it as I best know how
and that's the way it was told to me:
must have once been a theif or a w____
then surely was thrown overboard, where, they say
I came the way from the deep blue sea

picked me up and tossed me round
I lost my shoes and tore my gown
forgot my name and drowned, then
woke up with the surf a-pounding, it seemed
I had been run aground

well they took me in and shod my feet
and taught me prayers for chastity
and said my name would be "Colleen"
and I was blessed among all women, to have
forgotten everything

~

and as the weeks and months ensued
I tried to make myself of use
tilled and planted, but could not produce
not root, nor leaf, nor flower, nor bean; Lord!
it seemed I overwatered everything

and I hate the sight of that empty air
like stepping for a missing stair
and falling forth forever blindly
cannot grab hold of anything! no, not I
most blessed among Colleens

~

I dream some nights of a funny sea
as soft as a newly born baby
cries for me so pitifully
and I dive for my child with a wildness, in me and then
so sweetly there recieved

but last night came a different dream
a gray and sloping-shouldered thing
said 'what's cinched 'round your waist, Colleen?
is that my very own baleen? no! have you
forgotten everything?'

~

this morning, 'round the cape at dawn
some travellers sailed into town
scraps for sale and the saddest songs
and a book of pictures, leather-bound that showed a whale
with a tusk a meter long

well I asked the man who showed it me:
'what is the name of that strange beast?'
he said its name translated roughly
to "He-Who-Easily-Can-Curve-
Himself-Against-The-Sky", and I am without words
he said 'my lady looks perturbed
(the light is in your eyes, Colleen)'
I said, 'what ever can you mean?', he leaned in and said
'you ain't forgotten everything'

~

'you dare to speak a lady's name?'
he said; 'my lady is mistaken,
I would not speak your name in this place
and if I were to try, then the wind - I swear - would rise
to tear you clean from me without a trace

'have you come, then, to rescue me?'
he laughed and said, 'from what, "Colleen"?'
you dried and dressed most willingly
you corseted, and caught the dread disease
by which one comes to know such peace'

Well it's true that I came to know such things
as the laws that govern property
and the herbs to feed the babes that wean
the welting weight for every season, but still
I don't know any g______ed "Colleen"!

~

then dive down there with the lights to lead
that seem to shine from everything
down to the bottom of the deep blue sea
down where your heart beats, so slow
and you never in your life have felt so free
will you come down there with me?
down where our bodies start to seem
like artifacts of some strange dream
which afterwards you can't decipher, and so, soon
have forgotten everything

See also:
JustSomeLyrics
71
71.96
The Lemonheads Left for Dead Lyrics
Flatt & Scruggs Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms Lyrics