Admiral of the Puddle

Verse 1

You've heard the songs of the open sea,

Of gales that drowned a better man than me,

Of weeping widows on the harbour stair,

And saltwater tangled through their hair.

Well I have sailed as far as any soul,

And known the tide's relentless, ancient pull -

But I'll tell you now where my voyages lie:

Beneath a garden wall, beneath a summer sky.

Pre-Chorus

Call me no fool for my shallow waters,

No widow made of me, no orphaned daughters -

I know the sea I sail, and I sail it well,

And I've a grander tale than theirs to tell.

Chorus

I am the admiral of the puddle,

Commander of the rain-filled rut,

My flagship is a paper vessel,

My pennant is a daisy cut.

I raise my storms with one deep sighing,

I lay them calm with half a smile,

And all the world I need for sailing

Fits inside a little while.

Verse 2

No press gang came to steal me from my door,

No surgeon's knife aboard, no cannon's roar,

My mast is a twig of elder, pale and fine,

My rigging is a stolen length of twine.

The oak leaf is my man-o'-war, broad-keeled,

The walnut shell my frigate, trim and steeled,

And when the wind blows cold across the stone,

I breathe my hurricanes and sail alone.

Pre-Chorus

Call me no fool for my shallow waters,

No widow made of me, no orphaned daughters -

I know the sea I sail and I sail it well,

And I've a grander tale than theirs to tell.

Chorus

I am the admiral of the puddle,

Commander of the rain-filled rut,

My flagship is a paper vessel,

My pennant is a daisy cut.

I raise my storms with one deep sighing,

I lay them calm with half a smile,

And all the world I need for sailing

Fits inside a little while.

Bridge

Oh, let them ride the Narrow Sea,

Let them round the Cape in the dark -

I've seen the whole of the world I need

In a cobblestone's grey and a lark.

For every tempest I have wakened

Dies on the shore of my own hand,

And every voyage that I've taken

Ends where I began - where I began.

Instrumental Break - fiddle and concertina, slow and winding, like water finding its way over stone, then pipes come in, brightening to a dance

Verse 3

The other mariners may pity me,

Who never learned to fear the open sea -

But fear is not a thing I've need to find

When I can conjure oceans in my mind.

My chart is drawn in chalk upon the yard,

My compass rose is scraped into the shard,

And when the rain comes filling up my deep,

I launch my fleet again and lose no sleep.

Chorus

I am the admiral of the puddle,

Commander of the rain-filled rut,

My flagship is a paper vessel,

My pennant is a daisy cut.

I raise my storms with one deep sighing,

I lay them calm with half a smile,

And all the world I need for sailing

Fits inside a little while -

Fits inside a little while