Sinner in the Sea

There’s a piano playing on the ocean floor between Havana and New Orleans
Drummin’ a requiem for the dead and the souls hanging on every poet’s prayer
Running to the rock, running to the sea
Prayin’ to the Lord please shelter me
But the ground keeps shaking, water is boiling on fire
Blood pulsing through their veins like the waves crashing on the
Malecón wall

Clocks stopping at twelve on the eve of a forgotten war
Luis drivin’ a ‘59 making it half way across the Gulf
Stranded on the rock, stranded on the sea
There’s a wall in the ocean between you and me
Dreams of reaching dry land, talking to the fortune teller
Prisoners pounding the jail like the waves crashing on the Malecón wall

Someone lost an eye, someone lost the truth
Trying to save face, oh ‘neath the eyes of the Virgin el Cobre
Shout me a line sister, shout me a line sister
Oh I see your hands in the air, see you drowning on the other side

“Chief’s in the parish and the drummers in the square
Walkin’ across the fire, walkin’ across the waves”

Sinner in the rock, sinner in the sea
There’s a sunken bridge ‘tween you and me
Running past the embassy gates, the Santería shrine
Blood pulsing thru their veins like the waves they remember
Crashing on the Malecón wall