Deserters

I don't mind them leaving at all It is their right To leave me like a floundering ship behind We should not force a soul to do what's good for them If it is only indirect harm to you No matter how you think of it You cannot get a better deal A lighter ship is easier keel. What absolutely gets to me Enough to have someone walk the plank Is not the sneaky break of rank But the tarry gall to return Finding that the other's hell does hotter burn. I will giblet and rack the betrayal Not for the fear that fouls the fickle will But for the emptiness of promise in the self And then to lie and lie Causing me to be the captain of their distress. What is it that brings them back Once you hold a steady course? Is it the silence of the sea, The vast quiet of eternity? Is it the illusion of our horizon, The emptiness of space with speck of earth and sun? What is it that brings them back? O I know, I know, I know It is the myth The one mothers feed their daughters on While preparing them to rear the world. That hand rocks so many things The cradle was the best part of it For some Beauty makes insatiable the heart And love is despised in gentleness. O we were no good to be good Let them court a prince to love the devil I am tired of that trash The needle of the scale promoted by cash. My ship is empty now Let it sail with dancing bow.