U brought me up

You Brought Me Up
You brought me up and out of the water
You brought me up to forget
I had ever been, I could ever breathe
In the water under your heart

I darkened your door and your days, you said
You couldn't sleep the night
With the sound of the sea hard on my heels
Climbing the stairs to your bed

You promised me gloves from the skins of the fishes
The smile of a dolphin for a ring in my hands
You left me with nothing but a mouthful of air
And promises wide as the ocean

You left me down for once and for all
You left me out in the open
Under mackerel skies, high and dry
Way out of the reach of our sea

Way out of reach and out of my depth
I wear your love like a skin
That hurts when anyone touches me
Where you left me down for once and for all
Out of the reach of our sea

You promised me gloves from the skins of the fishes
The smile of a dolphin for a ring in my hands
But you left me with nothing but a mouthful of air
And promises wide as the ocean

You brought me up and out of the water
You brought me up to forget
I had ever been, I could ever breathe
In the water under your heart



The Wicked Sister
A mother lived by the North Sea shore
Daughters were the babes she bore
One grew radiant as the sun
Darkly grew the elder one

A knight came riding to their door
He travelled far to be their wooer
He courted both with gold and rings
But loved the younger o'er all things

"Sister, won't you walk with me
To watch the ships sail o'er the sea?"
As they walked the rocky shore
The dark one pushed her sister o'er

"Sister, sister, let me live
All that's mine I'll surely give"
"Thy bridegroom I will take and more
But thou shalt never come ashore"

Off she floated like a swan
The salt sea bore her body on
You could not see her lily feet
Her golden fringes were so deep

A minstrel walking by the strand
Saw her body float to land
When he looked that lady on
He sighed and made a heavy moan

He made a harp of her breastbone
Whose sound would melt a heart of stone
Took the strands of her bright hair
And with them strung his harp so rare

He brought the harp to the wedding hall
There to play before them all
When they set it on a stone
The harp began to play alone

The strings sang out a dreadful sound
"The bride her younger sister drowned
Now her secret you all know
Her guilty tears will surely flow"