Shell - Vashti Bunyan

In the telling of your story

There is so much that’s lost

There’s an ocean in between

The seen and unseen

That’s as deep as the loss was

To you so young

I just see a shell

Can’t really get the picture

I’ve nothing to compare

Can’t say I understand

Have no hand to lend

You had more than your fair share

For one so young

But you do it all so well

I fold things just like my mother

Into two then into three

I don’t know why I do

But then I think of you

And what it takes to be free

From all you’ve learned

But you know it all too well

In the telling of your story

You say there’s so much more

Then you curl away from me

To some deeper sea

And I’m here on the foreshore

Till your return

I just see a shell