Port of Call
Words and music by: Kieran Halpin
(Recorded by Tom Lewis on 360° All Points of the Compass)
You spent your life in service, you've
apprenticed long enough,
And you learned to love the ocean, both becalmed and deathly
rough,
Now you wait in patient silence for some long abandoned ship,
To call you up for duty and one more longed-for trip.
Still Henry comes to see you, to wipe away your tears,
With his love of country music and half a dozen beers,
And he takes you from your sorrow and he takes you on the
town,
Says if you can't forget the ocean, there's danger you might
drown.
No sixty year old sailor is wanted on the sea,
No forty years of sailing will get them to agree,
No twenty years of reasoning will ever make them see,
That no amount of money can ever set you free.
Still Henry's young and happy, he can only do so much,
And you realise he loses you when you start losing touch,
In this dirty, smoky barroom you stare blindly at your past,
And you see the ghost of every coast appearing in your glass.
And you did your bit for Europe, for your king and your
country,
But they soon forgot your sacrifice in the wake of victory,
Now these empty bottles ask you: was it peace or was it war,
Was it love or just frustration that brought you down so far.
No sixty year old sailor is wanted on the sea,
No forty years of sailing will get them to agree,
No twenty years of reasoning will ever make them see,
That no amount of money can ever set you free.
And all these years of waiting will they be worth it after
all,
Because there's only one more voyage - just one more port of
call.
