Bone Of My Brain

[Em]/[G]/[Am] x 2

We have a rule on this boat
No one’s allowed to talk about
Their families or the lives they lived before
They say it’s bad for morale,
To keep sending out unanswered mail
We just sing the kind of songs
That help you pull the oars

[C]/[G]/[Am] x 2

But folded close to my chest
Is the letter to me you gave
Run my fingers o’ere the lines till
They became an inky haze ----- (Am held)

[Dm]/[C]/[G] x 2

It’s been so long now
I’m not
sure
You weren’t a dream
Or something from a book

[Dm] [C] [G] [Em] [D] [C] [G]

I confused for a memory
Of a woman who would wait for me
And keep a candle lit
All through the years

[Em]/[G]/[Am] x 4

Did I tell you about my wife
And infant son
Who we hadn’t yet named at the time I left
and who’d now be twenty one
Family so far behind
from where this current runs
All that’s left all that’s left is
the bone of my brain soaked in the blinding sun

[Dm]/[C]/[G] x 2

The other men have ridiculed me
And I’ve brained a few of them
For their gall

[Dm] [C] [G] [Em] [D] [C] [G]

But the truth is I feel shameful
For the woman I defend
Is a face that I can
no longer recall

[Em]/[G]/[Am] x 10 (?)

I thought of you once
I thought of you twice
And the thought got stuck
Like a rock in the pipe
For every passing thing
A little bit collects
So my love became
A mineral precipitate

All that’s left
All that’s left
Is the bone of my brain
All that’s left
All that’s left
Is the bone of my brain
I might never see you again
But I’ll always have what I became

All that’s left
All that’s left
Is the bone of my brain
All that’s left
All that’s left
Is the bone of my brain
This body’s made of ropes
Rubbed weak and frayed
Where they rubbed up on the side
‘pon the side of my brain

Like an oyster makes a pearl
With pressure and spit
Peel away the flesh and
There’s the cherry pit
Carve it into scrimshaw
From a hobby kit
For all the times I said your name
This is what I get

All that’s left
All that’s left
Is the bone of my brain
All that’s left
All that’s left
Is the bone of my brain
All that’s left
All that’s left
All that’s left
All that’s left
All that’s left--

Final Part:
[Em] [G] [Am] [C]

I find myself outside an unfamiliar house
As the snow swirls round my knees
An old woman comes and answers the door
I can tell she does not recognize me
Old woman can you recall twenty years before
Your brazen young lover said he was just going to the store
And you waited for him on the hill overlooking the seashore
Old woman, I’m your lover, finally back from tour.