Verse 1 Where the ramp meets rope and lantern-light is thin, There’s a stretch of dock the sober won’t step in. Old pilings creak like teeth in a salt-rotted grin, And the tide draws back to show what sleeps within. Chorus So drink your ale and hold your tongue, let low tide pass you by, If you hear the tapping underwood, don’t answer, don’t ask why. Keep your eyes upon your table and your hands where they can be seen, And never whistle after sundown near the haunt of the Keel-Wife queen. Verse 2 They say she was a shipwright’s love, and he was taken fast, A snapped line, a hard green wave, and then the breath was past. She went down with the hammer still, with rage that wouldn’t last, Now she counts the living keels like debts from voyages long cast. Chorus So drink your ale and hold your tongue, let low tide pass you by, If you hear the tapping underwood, don’t answer, don’t ask why. Keep your eyes upon your table and your hands where they can be seen, And never whistle after sundown near the haunt of the Keel-Wife queen. Verse 3 Hear it? Tap… tap… tap… like a mallet on a nail, Not the wind, not the rigging, not a sailor’s drunken tale. It’s the sound of plank and promise and a coffin’s final rail, And the one who leans to listen learns the sea can choose to take. Chorus So drink your ale and hold your tongue, let low tide pass you by, If you hear the tapping underwood, don’t answer, don’t ask why. Keep your eyes upon your table and your hands where they can be seen, And never whistle after sundown near the haunt of the Keel-Wife queen. Verse 4 Some fools laugh and toss a copper down to make the black water shine, Some fools spit and swagger, saying ghosts can’t read a line. But the dock remembers arrogance, and the sea remembers time, And a marked keel finds a reef edge like a drunk finds cheaper wine. Chorus So drink your ale and hold your tongue, let low tide pass you by, If you hear the tapping underwood, don’t answer, don’t ask why. Keep your eyes upon your table and your hands where they can be seen, And never whistle after sundown near the haunt of the Keel-Wife queen. Verse 5 And if you’re bound for Keel-Hollow when the moon pulls hard and low, Walk like you belong there, friend, and never let it show. Pay your tab, forget your questions, leave your bravado below, Because Colwyn loves a loudmouth… but the Keel-Wife loves them more. Chorus So drink your ale and hold your tongue, let low tide pass you by, If you hear the tapping underwood, don’t answer, don’t ask why. Keep your eyes upon your table and your hands where they can be seen, And never whistle after sundown near the haunt of the Keel-Wife queen.
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