The Moon and Old Songs

A week ago tonight we were traveling by ferry back to the states.  The sun set just as we set out, and the crescent moon shone over the orange horizon reflecting in the water.  As twilight deepened, the moon sank lower and became more ruddy.  As we pulled into the harbor, suddenly the moon was no longer a beacon of sky and water, but a lamp over the mountains — a pale red bow aimed below the rim of the world.   I stood on the upper deck gazing at the moon, and it seemed like I stood still on a platform while the red moon moved closer.   

An old memory of a song (by We Three) came to mind and I found myself softly singing:

"The moon sails over the city streets / Sails over stars and the water's edge.  / The wind moves the water like a spider's web, / it can be a trap, it can leave you dead.  / Swallows, moving in and out of it, in and out of it. / It's all in the way you live, in the way you live."  

When I finished, the ferry terminal bracketed the moon within a rectangle of metal.   We grabbed our bags and disembarked.   The Blackball Ferry song did not play, and I was able to maintain a poetic mood for a while.  Man, I need to find my old We Three recordings.  

 

[2022-09-26 Editor's Note:  At the beach the other day, starting with the whirlpool, more of the song came back to me:

The Moon sails over the city streets / sails over stars and the waters edge.// The wind moves the water like your wavy hair / I see a reflection there / in the whirlpool. // Thread like like a spider's web,  / it can be a trap, it can leave you dead.  / Swallows, moving in and out of it, in and out of it. / It's all in the way you live, in the way you live.

 I'm still not sure about that double "in the way you live," at the end and have a vague notion there's something about living on the waters edge or looking from a cliff.]