The Gulf of Araby

Natalie Merchant

Compositor: Natalie Merchant

The Gulf of Araby
If you could fill a veil with shells from Killiney's shore
And sweet talk in a tongue that is no more
If wishful thought could bridge
The Gulf of Araby
Between what is
What is
What is
And what can never be

If you could hold the frozen flow of New Hope Creek
And hide out from the one they said you might meet
If you could unlearn all the words
That you never wanted heard
If you could stall the southern wind
That's whistling in your ear
You could take what is
What is
What is
To what can never be

One man of seventy whispers free at last
Two neighbours who are proud of their massacres
Three tyrants torn away in a winter's month
Four prisoners framed by a dirty judge
Five burned with tyres
Six men still inside
And seven more days to shake at the great divide

We would plough and part the earth to bring you home
We would harvest every miracle ever known
If they laid out all the things
That these ten years want to bring
We would gladly give them up
To bring you back to us
O, there is nothing we would not give
To kiss you and believe we can take what is
What is
What is
To what can never be

One man at seventy whispers not free yet
Two neighbors who wake up knee-deep in their death
Three tyrants grab the reins in the summer's heat
Four prisoners lost in the fallacy
Five, on my life
Six, I'm dead inside
And seven more days to shake at the great divide