By Michael Guy Bowman bowman Bandcamp YouTube YouTube mguybowman Twitter michaelguybowman.com Other mguybowman Instagram ← When We Take The Sky Previous track by this artist → Venus Fly Next track by this artist.
Released 8/9/2024.
Duration: 3:17.

Listen on Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Music.

General contributors:

• Bijan Eghtesady melancholyrobot Bandcamp melancholy_robo Twitter ← When We Take The Sky Previous general contribution by this artist → Venus Fly Next general contribution by this artist (drums)
• Bonnie Maddox (accordion)

Lyrics:

Gentlemen, listen right now as I speak
I fear that this ship of ours has sprung a leak
The sea, she is coming to take us an inch at a time
It's roaring in faster than buckets can fill
I fear it's a matter of minutes until
From belly to mast we'll be deeper than any can climb

And all of this now with the shore plain in sight
We might make it yet if the load could be light
But what sort of life do you think we'll afford
If we have to throw all that we have overboard?

The gold in our coffers is weighing us down
We shan't spend a cent if we're certain to drown
And none can come with you at all in the life after this
So gather your treasures and cast them away
And if you are swift then I hope and I pray
We won't soon be up to our eyes in a watery kiss

And if one among you at all hesitates
Remind them this is for the lives of their mates
But what sort of life do you think we'll afford
If we have to throw all that we have overboard?

See now the spoils in motion
Straight to the heart of the ocean
Down in the drink, every glimmering piece
You watch as they sink while the waters increase
Just slow enough to renew life's intolerable lease

At last we arrive clinging onto the sails
And leap to the dock when it finally fails
The ship where we spent seven months as we circled the globe
The price that we paid sure is awfully steep
Behind us the trail that shines in the deep
Could only be seen by an angler's most luminant lobe

We came as we left now with only our lives
The glory is gone but the story survives
So what sort of life do you think we'll afford
Now we've had to throw all that we have overboard?
Yes what sort of life do you think we'll afford
Now we've had to throw all that we have overboard?