Sister, Sail from Coyote Wings by Zoe Mulford

The sky was red at morning above the brooding bay
and the cannons cried a warning, but still you slipped away
to gain your lofty vessel and fly before the gale
from peril into peril - sister, sail!

Your company awaits you, a canny crew and keen
of joyful desperadoes and you their pirate queen
who faced a frowning fortune and lived to tell the tale
Now seek the far horizon - sister, sail!

Sister, sail - and so defy them all
with a bounty laid upon you in every port of call
oh, sail - rejoicing as we may
through the world in all its wonder
til the day we all go under
through another plundered sunrise, sister, sail -
sail another day!

And you'll lay in by the islands beneath a ruby moon
to fill the hold with sandalwood and chocolate and dubloons
with every smuggled treasure and every dear detail
and all the world a treasure, sister, sail!

And the bonny ship you sail in has weathered fire and flood
She knows the taste of powder and she knows the taste of blood
Someday she will founder, someday she will fail
but that day is not today, so sister, sail!

So sail with all your courage, sail with all your skill
Sail because you must and sister, sail because you will
Leave behind a legend, a tale for all to tell -
but better still to tell the tale yourself

Sister, sail - and so defy them all
with a bounty laid upon you in every port of call
oh, sail - rejoicing as we may
through the world in all its wonder
til the day we all go under
through cannon-fire and thunder
to another plundered sunrise, sister, sail -
sail another day!

© 2012 Zoe Mulford/ SquashFlower (ASCAP)

• Folk
• Harvest Home
• clawhammer banjo
• neo-traditional
• pirates
• singer-songwriter
• Manchester