Shackleton, pt. 1: No Home For Me

I am a man of simple means

But I am more than I may seem

Set out alone at seventeen

For this city by the sea

I settled myself by degrees

The smoke and the cacophony

No promises, no guarantees

And no keeping off your knees

CHORUS

I try to survive

But it’s always the same thing

Watch the river go by

Hear the bells on the ships ring

You can stay if you must

Chasing rust from your pipe dreams

There’s no home for me in this machine

A captain from old Aberdeen

The likes of him I’d never seen

Came scouting for ship’s company

And I signed up easily   

While all the others came undone

I held together like a drum

Til that solitary midnight sun

Took a mind to set us free

One autumn day I did return

With debt and favor I had earned

And my thoughts again began to burn

With that siren melody

When that ocean fever’s in your mind

No comfort in this place to find

And no room for what you leave behind

For the sake of history