No Deeper Hell

I was born in a very dark place,
With a foul, red , angry face.
I had wings and teeth that could grip,
On the day that my parents jumped ship.

I was raised an itinerant boy.
Every day a new ship ahoy.
I spend more time afloat than on land.
And I wreck every boat that I've manned.

I've got wrongs from the past to undo.
I project all my hate on the crew.
I've seen every dry port in the west.
Wasn't taught how to talk or to dress.

I'll find where my parents to fled.
I don't mind if they're remorseless or dead.
But pair after pair of old boots
I'll get through til I've traced back my roots.

Lay my mattress in squalor and muck.
All the sailors show me how to fuck.
Broken back, shark attack, scurvy too.
Just to prove to my folks I love you.

I've got nothing to say, lots to see.
I'm a horny young wretch in Paris.
I've been whored and harangued and held up.
Spent one hot night in a gendarme's truck.

I've been bought, traded, given and gained.
There's a new family each time it rains.
In the gutter there's no deeper hell.
But you're so close to heaven as well.

I belong down a hole out of sight.
I deserve to have no food or light.
If I did then I'd stay in one place;
Wash clean my foul, red, angry face.

I write this in my damp galley bunk,
Where I tally the ships that I've sunk.
Godspeed sweet white earth, I'm obscene.
Tomorrow I'll wake and be clean.