DESCRIPTION:
I wrote this to try to understand how it feels to be in a sinking boat coming across the Mediterranean after your city has been destroyed by bombs, but of course, it is unimaginable.

Home is a skull
And they leave their city walking
No toys
No consolation in footfall
I do not know what they think of
Nor how they stay the gape of night
Asleep in the ear of a bull.

Asleep, won't you go to sleep, baby?
Asleep, won't you go to sleep?

The shore shines dark as wine
And they, slick wet to step aboard
No toys
No consolation in nightfall
They lose themselves in crowds
All eyes and hands and arms
Remember how I am these parts.

Asleep, won't you go to sleep, baby?
Asleep, won't you go to sleep?

The boat is not seaworthy
And they are not deemed worthy
To be seen
Or searched for, or saved.
I do not know what they think of
Nor how they hold the rush of sea
Alive in the belly of a whale.

Alive, won't you stay alive, baby?
Alive, won't you stay alive?

The water comes in singing,
Stealing people's breaths
They float like sudden puppets
All hands and arms and legs
And only water will caress
A girl in her best dress.