[Intro] (Acoustic guitar strumming in 6/8 time) (Faint sound of a foghorn and creaking wood) (Accordion enters with a minor-key waltz) [Verse 1] The floorboards groan a hollow tune beneath my husband’s tread He brings the smell of sawdust and the stack of daily bread He is a man of honest hand, a gilder by his trade He’s etched my name in gold leaf on the bed that he has made But gold is such a heavy mask for a heart of simple clay And I am counting every hour until the light of day. [Chorus] Oh, the anchor pulls the spirit down While the gilder builds a golden crown One is the hearth, steady and warm The other’s the salt and the howl of the storm! [Verse 2] For when the fog rolls off the spit and chokes the harbor light I hear the rigging whistle through the curtains of the night There’s a brigantine from Tartary with a hull of weathered pine And a captain with a wanderer’s eye who says that he is mine He does not offer wedding rings or a hearth to keep me warm He only offers salt and spray and the center of the storm. [Bridge] (Music swells: add driving drums and frantic violin) My husband speaks of orchard plots and the price of winter wheat He tucks the woolen blankets round the arches of my feet But I am miles away from him, out past the breakwater A ghost upon a galley ship, a wayward, wicked daughter! For one man builds a fortress wall to keep the world at bay While the other is the rising tide that washes walls away! [Guitar and Accordion Solo] (Upbeat but melancholy folk instrumental) [Verse 3] [Slow down, stripped back] Oh, the gilder keeps his brushes clean, his ledger in a row He loves me with a quietness that I will never know But the sailor keeps a pocket watch that’s rusted at the gears He’s promised me the doldrums and a thousand briny years And though I wake in velvet sheets, I dream of hempen rope Of a life devoid of steady ground and a heart devoid of hope. [Outro] So let the hammer strike the nail, and let the anchor fall I am the prisoner of the parlor and the mistress of the squall Between the hearth... and the horizon I am pulled until I break... (Accordion fades out slowly with the sound of waves) [End]
