A Beast Washed Ashore - White Hinterland

'Neath the leaden lid

I saw your face

Ashen and pale as you walked away

And I stayed behind

Oh Where’d you go

Dearest friend of mine

Can you recall the lurid scene of savagery

The sea beast belly-up and beached

Twice as long as a seven mast ship

They took him apart with pliers and a crane

Oh they took him apart, though it took several days

And they took him apart and the townspeople came

And chit-chattered away

The sky that night seemed lacerated

Each cloud a con- contusion

Some wade in the water to wash his bones off

I wade in the water and I watch 'em

Then they stack him up on a pushcart

Haul him off to the maritime museum

The horizon boasts a widowed light

That punches pinholes 'tween the sycamores and pines

And through the sodden bogs I make my way back home

The biddies of the town can chew this tale down

And gnaw it into skeletal scraps 'til fiction is fact

See the truckling trees, bare in the air

But for struggling kites

Oh!

His bones are bleached, laid out on the truck

His teeth are brushed and his mouth is shut

His bones are tied with twine and screws

Put on poles, hoisted up in a room

I recall looking once 'neath your lids

To a universe full of starts

And the days drag on awfully long

When you’re not one who can carry on

Chit-chattering away

Chit-chattering away…