The Wake of Magellan

As he stood upon the watch deck

Looking out onto the sea

It would offer no solutions

Only silent company

So he took hold of the reasons

As he tried to understand

But they offered just confusion

As they bled into his hands

Dear god

Couldn't you decide

What should happen to a man's assassins

Dear god

Is it suicide

I have never been a man of passions

I believe what the prophets said

That the oceans hold their dead

But at night when the waves are near

They whisper

And I hear

There are wounds that bleed inside us

There are wounds we never see

That allow a man to be

There are wounds that bleed in silence

With aristocratic grace

There are tears we keep beside them

Never seen upon a face

Dear god

Do you think it's wise

To remember everything that & #146; s ever happened

Dear god

Could we compromise

Or must the shadows of this night be everlasting

I believe what the prophets said

That the oceans hold their dead

As I contemplate this stand

What I do

Is who I am

I believe what the prophets said

That the oceans hold their dead

But at night when the waves are near

They whisper

And I hear

Don't see the storms are forming

Don't see or heed the warning

Don't hear the sound of tyrants

Surrounded by the silence

Columbus and Magellan and de gama

Sailed upon the ocean

In a world of ignorance

With thoughts so primitive

That men were killed

With no more will

Than that they simply had the notion

But in this world of heartless men

This thing they never did

Don't hear it

Don't hear it

Don't hear it

Don't hear it

Got to keep it underground

Pretend you never heard a sound

Lord tell me what is to be

Lord tell me what is to be

They whisper and I hear

After a night of little sleep

He opened the gangway door

And felt his world collapsing

Not believing what he saw

For there with hands above his head

Was a fourth stowaway

Trying to surrender

Not knowing the price he would pay

Miguel knew he must act quickly

If the lad was to have any hope

So he pointed to the captain

And ran a finger cross his throat

And though he spoke little english

The stowaway seemed to understand

And followed miguel to a hiding spot

And placed his life into his hands

After many days in fear

They safely reached the port

And there the stowaway was set free

And the captain brought to court

But then things took an evil twist

And justice seemed to fail

For miguel was held as a refugee

And the captain freed on bail

And the company of the maersk dubai

Brought lawyers by the pack

Who would search for technicalities

To let the case slip through the cracks

So while the lawyers search for loopholes

Miguel still sits and waits

In some small room, his future ruined

While justice hesitates

And I wonder what the captain thinks

Each evening in his bed

And if he shares his dreams at night

With the recent dead

For captain there will be a day

When your soul will wash up on heaven's shore

I pray that when you reach that day

That god's mercy is more than yours

And sometimes in the evening

Miguel will take long walks

And like the old sailor before him

With the ocean he will talk

And as he walks along

He breathes in the ocean's morphine mist

And looking once more across the night

Dares the stars to grant a wish