CAPTIVE WATER
Women’s chorus: Beth Alma, Mary Bok, Fiona Hall, Meikle Hall, Mary Ann Hensel, Ellie Libby, Lois Lyman, Selkie O’Mira, Susan Shaw, Holly Torsey and Lynn Travis
I've had a 20-year conversation with Bob Zentz about taking other species out of their habitats – "stealing them to the sky." Perhaps our persistent preoccupation of alien abduction is a reflection of our own history.
Think about the dolphins in the Mediterranean lying like logs on the surface. Think about the mass strandings on so many coasts. Think about the degradation of their soundscape from ships and US Government sonar bombings. Think about the degradation of their habitat with oil and acid water and over-fishing. These are not stupid beings; we are not listening.
Blue and green the waters warm |
And so they take my child away |
and light and light and shining down |
and leave us silent in the sea |
So close beneath the sun and free |
and leave their strength and cruelty |
we roll the soft and lifting sea |
to stain the clear ways of the sea |
And where the flicking fishes slide |
|
we, leaping, singing, diving ride |
Now on the Northern reaches far |
the shifting warmth of light above |
behind the shoaling waters where |
the rippled world in play and love |
the lonely grey ones come to weep |
And now come whining, white and brown |
for gifts of life they cannot keep |
the noisy churning boats of man |
another voice comes back to me |
and man come rolling thrashing down |
her voice is keening through the sea |
with chase and pass of flailing hand |
And oh my child is singing there |
and roll and tow and swing and send |
in captive water and in air |
that all the world is play and friend |
Alive, she says; I am alive |
And now the net strike from above |
Oh warm and fed and still alive |
to catch my child and yank and heave |
And through the little channel seep |
her leaping life and living love |
that runs to sea her soul to keep |
and hold her though she twist and dive |
her voice is coming out to me |
and drag her screaming to the sky |
I am alive, I am alive |
and all she knows is asking why |
but mother I am lonely |
And I beside her only know |
I am alive, alive, alive |
her fright and pain and now I see |
but mother I am never free |
her lifted from the loving sea |
Mother, mother all you saw |
and feel the dreadful weight of air |
is true, these ones will never know |
come on her and it comes on me |
they have no ear to hear my cry |
And now the one with hissing breath |
and all I ever ask is why |
and mirrored face that mirrors death |
And we who have no sound for fear |
is here beside me in the sea |
can roam the living waters clear |
and when I turn to ask him why |
and we can kill and fight and run |
he has no tongue to answer me |
but why now do we choose to die |
Has he no mind behind his eye |
before we kill a human one |
and never tongue to answer me |
And still they steal us to the sky |
And so they take my child away |
and all we ask of them is why |
And so they take my child away |
and all we ever ask is why |
Captive Water is recorded on the album Other Eyes