Broken Oars - Nieves

The wind beat your father’s face

Every mark with it’s own embrace

I’m here but I won’t replace

How could I anyway?

Those times bred a harder man

A post-war child living mouth to hand

Build of granite and grit and sand

But time erodes

You brought in your lines

On hooks you made together

Thin metal bent, intertwined

Stale bread in paper bags

Cared not that the days were dark

And the nights not better

Your eyes welled as the boat would start

You could have stayed forever

You’re just breathing out, breathing in

It’s all you have, it’s all you’ve got to give

Oh, I tried to be everything

Couldn’t stop these walls from falling in

There’s not a memory you haven’t lived

There’s not a word that I can save you with

Now the silence, it is deafening

Must we break ourselves to start again?

More time, she said

I love you more than life, I begged

But I can read your mind

So let’s dress up and we can go outside

Over and over and over

We can’t live like this

The telly, the curtain, our union in bits

I won’t leave you now for the sake of the kids

But you don’t see me anymore

Can’t you remember what we were before?

You’re just breathing out, breathing in

It’s all you have, it’s all you’ve got to give

Oh, I tried to be everything

Couldn’t stop these walls from falling in

There’s not a memory you haven’t lived

There’s not a word that I can save you with

Now the silence, it is deafening

Must we break ourselves to start again?