Sea of Snow

©1973 Andrew Calhoun, recorded on Where Blue Meets Blue

There's a sea of snow outside
A sea of snow outside
That troubles those who live
And covers those who die
It's blown up to your doorstep, from beyond the Northern Sea
It's turned the morning savage, and it's turned the moonlight grey.

And all that I want is a house of my own
A place to call my very own home
A place where no one goes out or comes in
Unless, unless, unless they're alone.

And oh, my love Wanda is pretty and brave
And she never asks me for what I don't have
Sometimes she's white, and sometimes she's black
And sometimes I fear that she'll never come back

I saw a college boy skating on polluted lake ice
He had thin earmuffs on, and he didn't look nice
The snow shook with the wind, as it twisted and flew
On the surface of terror, where the boy twisted too

Come sit down beside me, oh please, oh please
Don't stare down on torment, don't get on your knees
I won't ask you to see what I see
Just come over here and sit down beside me

And take me away, from the night, from the day
From the minutes I spend, masquerading as clay
Take me away from the blank hardware store
Take me away from the war

The incinerator's filled with wet, rotten rusty cans
The ashes of summer settled on an old man
This is a tragic and a magical time
Have some bread, have some crackers, and cheese, and fine red wine

Dusk hung down heavy, over brown grass and dogs
I rubbed leaves in my face, as the streetlight shone through the fog
When things get desperate, people go different ways
Some run in crazy patterns, others smile all day
And some will worship on murderer's hill
Where a dead body glows in the luminous haze

In a weathered old house, I sat in a room
painted white, where the cracks shone grey,
And I sang what I sang, and I sang what I must
And a teardrop rang out in a roomful of dust
And the floorboards sang,
"Glory to loneliness, Glory to pride, to shoes and to blues and to places to hide"

I know no one who's happy, who's completely all right
Who isn't downtrodden, or broken in flight
And even the sky, if you look late at night
It's black and it's blue and it's losing its sight

It isn't greed, that hollows your eyes
It's the spinning from terror, and running for lies
No it isn't greed that keeps people apart
It's fear and it's cowardice, that cover your heart