Tonight I've brought you with me
Here into the water
To catch our ghosts
Collect our lives from the dead
Daughter, don't be afraid
Mmm
They float around belly up
Like clouds of flour
Thrown into the water
Nudging against our knees
Germinating faces
Beastly and familiar
Say, I know you
Do I know you
Mmm
There goes the arm of a grandmother
A brother's ankle
A twin's cheek
Hardly stir them with a finger
And they break apart
Elusive wisps
Stringy and genetic
Impossible to sift through them all
Pull one up by its unbound hair
Stringy and genetic
Beastly and familiar
Daughter, don't be afraid
I know you
You know me
That is your great grandfather
Coiling round us like the rope
That wound around his neck
Father always said it was his death
That saved him
Called back home for his funeral that day
Instead of being sent to Vietnam
We must have been there with him
Swinging in the dust
Underneath his feet
Elusive wisps
Stringy and genetic
Germinating faces
Beastly and familiar
Daughter, don't be afraid
Tonight I've brought you with me
Here into the water
To catch our ghosts
Collect our lives from the dead
Daughter, don't be afraid