Solemn Dancer
Pete’s world at sea was steel and gray
Storm and sickness, cold and hunger, salt and spray, fighting fear
One quiet moment lyin’ in his bunk
He got Kate’s picture out of his seaman’s trunk
And wrote these words, “my dear,
Alone is a solemn dancer
And you my love are the only answer I’ll ever need
And if I question my will to live
I’ll think of what I’d give to touch your skin,
Warm as a memory”
Katie suffered too, the missiles fell,
Bloody bandages, men in agony, no one can tell you how it feels
In the private refuge of her mind
Her only solace, like a prayer, was the note soaked in brine
She knew by heart, she sang
Alone is a solemn dancer
And you my love are the only answer I’ll ever need
And if I question my will to live
I’ll think of what I’d give to touch your skin,
Warm as a memory”
She nursed a sailor, and Pete survived
She held his hand and she danced beside him
He asked her, “could we marry before I go?”
Kate said “no”, she said,
“If this war can tear our souls apart
Then our love can mend our broken hearts,
When I see you walkin’ off that victory ship
Our eyes will meet and then our lips”
With a flag for a blanket, and a box for a bed,
Pete came home, in dress whites, with a hole in his head, Kate swam in tears
I know because Kate was carrying me
She always said the strangest thing as we walked down by the sea
She would tell me, my dear
Alone is a solemn dancer
And you my love are the only answer I’ll ever need
And if I question my will to live
I’ll think of what I’d give to touch your skin,
Warm as a memory”