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lyrics

A child’s watching the ocean and Massachusetts waves as they come to the sand
All the teenagers swimming and currents carrying one more shell from her hand
There are skeletons inland, away from the beaches, with their own stories to tell
But for a child of three a five hundred page book is a pretty hard sell

The stories of ice and of water are surely enough to scare a child
And add to that all of the tales of animals strong and fierce and wild
But little could stop all the men of New Bedford in eighteen hundred odd
When wives needed money and children food and they gave their hope to God

And the harpoons would hit and the oil was collected
The bones were all cleaned and their designs selected
But little by little the stories all grew
Of a white whale that gave whalers all they were due

The smell of the brine and the legends long before Melville were too much for many
With Puritan settlements taking every resource and not sharing any
But Friends shared all they had and kept a tight ship and good crew
And through their efforts everyone knows the stories ― just a few

And the harpoons would hit and the oil was collected
The bones were all cleaned and their designs selected
But little by little the stories all grew
Of a white whale that gave whalers all they were due

Whales drawn on whale teeth, ships inked on bone, and portraits of daughters and sons
Paintings and etchings to carry the story once known by everyone
Slocum went round and Melville wrote down the most famous tale of all
That of Ahab and the whale he swore he’d catch or devil would call

For when harpoons would hit and the oil was collected
That so often meant that the humans were bested
New Bedford holds stories, and this one is true
Of the white whale that gave whalers all they were due
All they were due

credits

from Chicken Scratch '22, released April 5, 2022

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Jasper Teagan Thomas

A filker and nerd with too much time to spare, JT takes pride in his work despite the fact that it's all done in his bedroom. A known queer who may be seen cuddling any fluffy animals in the vicinity before apologizing to them for how loud his instruments are. May be followed anywhere he goes by a whole bunch of corvids; don't ask. ... more

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