In the morning chalk dusted light you wake Draw back the curtain on your lidded eyes Blink in a dawning day, and, for all this, make Man gaze at the universe that so readily twinkles back A soft celestial song, sounded though the tack They pause, allowing you to be heard Baby and blue and bird
For every constellation that pulls men through oceans For every compass, and map and chart For every head, for every beating heart The baby blue will sing, oh and will he sing! A quiet aria, but let him glide and glide Up past the paper sails, and round the mastβs old tale To perch on the sweetest of symphonies But then! Oh then, by hour by hour Filling with music, that long leaden tower He will stop, and catch their heavy lids Children of the docks, dreaming of the stars Of life beyond tack and sail and sea As they whisper in etchings their plans To blue, on the boards of the berth deck You listen, to every scattering word Baby and blue and bird
I swear by the wood stork, the albatross, the kite The dip of kingfishers in the water I would adore you all my sorry life And adore you every one thereafter.