Message in the Bottle
Words & Music by Tom Lewis
(Recorded by Tom Lewis on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Singer!)
I walked along the beach to find a place
no foot had trod,
Searching for some solitude, perhaps commune with God,
Or perhaps commune with nature when I saw to my dismay,
A signal flash - a piece of glass, from half the world away.
There's a message in the bottle that's been washed up by the
tide,
In language anyone can read, for there's no note inside,
The bottle is the message and it's drifted here to say,
There are no desert islands now, we've thrown it all away.
An oily rainbow glistens on the water and the shore,
Seabirds, otters, fish and dolphins soon may be no more,
The ocean depths with our debris and sewage we've defiled,
"Reduce, re-use, recycle!" has the simpletons beguiled.
Ignoring tomorrow, we live for today, strutting like kings of
all we survey,
While profit rules, we stand like fools, between tortured
forest and urban decay.
Across the years and through my tears, I gaze at that lagoon,
And realise we've even left our garbage on the moon,
There's toxins in the aquifers and poison in the streams,
The end result of this assault, the stillbirth of our dreams.
There's a message in the bottle that's been washed up by the
tide,
In language anyone can read, for there's no note inside,
The bottle is the message and it's drifted here to say,
There are no desert islands now, we've thrown it all away.
