[Verse 1] They found him walking ashore three days? they’d been gone a little more, after the sea had pulled him under. No sail had hauled him back. No wreckage, no driftwood, no track on the tide-line where he’d vanished. Boots dripping black water, coat dry as bone, no stain, no smear, eyes fixed on a far-off line no one else could see. [Pre-chorus] "I found the floor," That was all. No one said much, The sea doesn’t hand things back to shore. [chorus] Faces on the beach Old sailors kept their heads down “What’s down there?” “Nothing below,” eyes fixed on the distant gray Faces on the beach Every one of them heard it plain The returned man, a hollow echo in his chest “Nothing below,” he rasped again, clawing at the sand [verse 2] Only that. No beneath. The air turned thin and mean. Candles bowed with no breeze, like they knew what they’d seen. Soon, he wandered the cliffs each evening, at sunset. Children said Shadows moved with him, shades he never met. Each dawn, they found impossible things washed up from the deep. A lantern, still burning, full of seawater, and sleep. [Pre-chorus] found on sandy beach floor That was all. [chorus] Faces on the beach Old sailors kept their heads down “What’s down there?” “Nothing below,” eyes fixed on the distant gray Faces on the beach Every one of them heard it plain The returned man, a hollow echo in his chest “Nothing below,” he rasped again, clawing at the sand [Bridge] The town held its breath as the tide pulled back, Secrets in the shallows. A coin stamped with a face no king had ever worn. Bones too large for any whale. A human hand, skin pale as pearl. He’d seen too much for any one man, a deep hush saying, “Never again.” found on sandy beach floor That was all. [chorus] Faces on the beach Old sailors kept their heads down “What’s down there?” “Nothing below,” eyes fixed on the distant gray Faces on the beach Every one of them heard it plain The returned man, a hollow echo in his chest “Nothing below,” he rasped again, clawing at the sand
