Mariner

  

Oh where have you been, my dark-eyed son?

I met a young woman

Whose body was burning,

Whose mind was a lightning storm

Over the sea.



And what did you hear, my dark-eyed son?

What did you hear, my darling young one?

The roar of a wave

that drowned the whole world,

her words were an opiate dream.



And what did you do, my dark-eyed son?

What do you now, my darling young one?

Lost in the flood

I learned what to fear:

That the dream was no less than it seemed.

—inspired by the Scottish border ballad, "Lord Randal" and by Bob
Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," based upon the same.