The Canal

The Canal Song, Ray Scott I was waiting by the Welland canal Locks not open and my ship won’t come in I leaned on my car and I slowly felt high Snowflakes on my eyes, icy tear snow globe mind Distant, Idling, feels like I’m gonna stall Slide against the hood, swelling up for a fall Bridge is frozen forever as i Feel my fear move through a flurry of headlights My limbs limp, blurred quarantine mind Anxiety overanalyzed Thoughts thinking to paralyze Lungs fill with cold air, crystalized, While my Chevy engine stammers, coughs and dies Blinded black but still feel Great Lake water rise And I realize, that nobody’s leaving Laker locked in and we’re tied to the walls Winter freeze on, icy echoing call Cross the dry-docks, this ship’s gonna’ fall 11 hours of unwound time Pleasure craft, get in line Soul sinks to his knees, feeling hopeless and all I could reach for was uncertainty Moon-clouds, swirling, while the undertow pulls Where the sky is absurd I forgot how to swim Now I’m locked in between Thoughts and decision And the ship drifts on by And I can’t find my head And the bridges fall down To the draining canal And it feels like I’m crying But it was all in my mind All coming and going Narrow borderlines And nobody’s leaving So I reach out, not speaking Some of me, now believing In the calm, flowing line That moves me from Erie, to Ontario So slowly, where I find myself, in broken matters; all tattered and stuck back together in bios of time Where my will unwinds