The veil thins, the days grow long, and in the warming sea, something stirs. The humpback whales make their way up to Stellwagen, their Caribbean-born calves in tow. Each extends one long fin to protect them from something they do not see and do not hear but which they perceive nonetheless; there is something in the water. Arctic terns wing northward, ever northward, they pass under the watchful eyes of the lighthouses on the rocky coast but they do not stop until they reach a latitude with no nightfall, fleeing from one midnight sun to another, knowing only that they cannot spend a single moment in darkness; there is something in the water. Even at a depth no light touches, impossibly, a shadow moves. It glides over the long dead volcano of Bear Seamount, over the scoured seafloor of George’s Bank, it is coming. Into the Gulf of Maine now, flying past the all seeing eye of Graves Light, into Boston Harbor, through the estuaries up into the Charles and the Neponset and the Mystic Rivers. Into the reservoirs and springs and vernal pools and into the pipes in your home and the ice in the drink in your hand, it is here. Now. There is something in the water.”

red sky at dawn a warning sign pay it no mind come on in the water’s fine take my hand and put your heart in mine pay it no mind come on in the water’s fine don’t you stop to say goodbye you know they’d never understand they want to leave your dreams to die all gasping high and dry on land you’ll get used to the pressure and you’ll learn to breathe the brine and we’ll drift away together come in the water’s fine the water’s fine, I swear it’s fine and I swear that I’ll be different this time and I had my reasons to be cruel and kind pay it no mind why would I lie this is fine the water’s fine you’re fine it's fine. I swear that it’s fine there's no need to heed that shiver down your spine and I promise you my tastes are quite refined pay it no mind quit your cryin’ this is fine the water’s fine it’s fine I promise you’re fine give me a sign, prove that you’re mine this is fine the water's fine and I swear it isn’t cold down here I swear it isn’t dark and I swear you’ll never have to fear and I’ll never eat your heart with your eyes sealed up with barnacles your ears stopped up with salt and you should have seen this coming but you know that’s your own fault and there won’t be much to save of you or even much to find, but no one lives for ever come in the water’s fine it's fine! you’re FINE. you taste divine, like blood and wine this is fine, the water’s fine, you’re fine

here we are again floating in the midnight zone you are close at hand with you I’ll never be alone even if I want to be no matter how deep I dive to I know you see me you see me even when I can’t see you not one scientist has ever seen you with their eyes but I know you exist from the scars you leave behind from where you’d hold me trying to keep me safe from harm you always told me I have so many arms to hold you down to hold you down, to hold you down I have so many arms to hold you down you have no lips or lungs still you spoke your words inside you put them on my tongue when they’d cut me up then I'd seal them in amber to blunt the edges of your rhymes there’s no love grander than to hold your story in me all the time what big eyes you have to see me in the gloom You cannot hear my song to you it’s silent as the tomb but still I hear you the siren songs of your alarm say not to fear you I have so many arms to hold you down to hold you down, to hold you down I have so many arms to hold you down I hold my breath another measure the weight of water bends my bones you could say that I’m a kraken from the pressure but I swear one day I’ll make my mind my own I swear one day I’ll make my mind my own 10 for the arms that you wind round about you 9 for The Hermit I hide from all the doubts who 8 me alive like the sharks swimming around 7 for the seas and I’m going 6 for the spiraling maelstrom in my heart 5 for the things I could see but it’s too dark 4 for the things I could hear but there's no sound 3 I could touch but I’m going 2 me and you in our arms as we both drown 1 I’m undone and I’m going down I’m going down I’m going down, I’m going down I'm going when I go down, you are coming with me if I go down, I swear to god I’ll take you with me and when I go down to where the water bends my bones then I won’t need you anymore

Deane wrecked them for the money off the freezing coast of Maine they needed meat, the carpenter was too dead to complain and it happens that the captain had been trained in butchery there’s no atheists in foxholes, and there’s no God at sea Franklin sailed the Terror proudly into Baffin Bay but his hand still reaches for the Beaufort Sea until this day was it lead or ice or pride? None can know but all agree there’s no atheists in foxholes, and there’s no God at sea But you were always different from them darling they didn’t have the knowledge or the nerve and you were meant for this, you know heard it calling if you want it more, you’ll get what you deserve why shouldn’t you just get what you deserve Pollard went back to Nantucket having drunk his kinsman's blood he sailed again, shipwrecked again, a Jonah he was judged at night he’d close his eyes and see the whale, nowhere to flee there’s no atheists in foxholes, and there’s no God at sea But you were always different from them darling they didn’t have the knowledge or the nerve and you were meant for this, you know heard it calling if you want it more, you’ll get what you deserve why shouldn’t you just get what you deserve you asked for this, you get what you deserve "it is finished, it is finished" Crowhurst scribbled in his log and he stepped right off the transom into history and fog his madness was the method, it is the mercy whispered he there’s no atheists in foxholes - and there’s no God at sea

a moonless night upon the deck the sails and rigging moan there’s no one here to hear us and at last we are, at last we are alone so I can speak my peace and if you think I’ve been unfair you can leave me on some island with a pistol for all I care not for the mission and I care not for the sea and I think it’s time, it’s high time that we had ourselves a little mutiny we have knives and we have will and we have something of a plan but it’s mostly just to take the wheel and do the best, do the best we can and if we run aground and drown at least we tried but I promise you the owners never gave a damn if we lived or died as masters of our fate and captains of our soul, well I think it’s more, it’s much more than some folks willxx whole and the captain's drunk, his mates are worse, the owners can go hang there’s nothing but our work make that makes this vessel thing they can say we're kin, but if it were the last ship in the world I’d set this ship on fire fore I’d ever be their girl you say that other ships are just as crooked I’m afraid and of that crooked timber nothing straight was ever made but I’d rather take my chances with the sharks for all their flaws at least the sharks are honest when they open up their jaws and the captain's drunk, his mates are worse, the owners can go hang there’s nothing but our work make that makes this vessel thing they can say we're kin, but if it were the last ship in the world I’d set this ship on fire fore I’d ever be their girl be their girl, I’d burn alive before I’d be their girl yes I’d set this ship on fire, and I won’t apologize turn in the widening gyre as the smoke and flames all rise they can say we’re kin but if it were the last ship in the world I’d set it all on fire before I’d ever be, I’d ever be their girl be their girl, I’d burn alive before I’d be their girl, oh

come to the shore now children mine past the surf and the sand come to the waters cold and fine far from the fettering land no land shall hem thee in my child if you return to me but only the winding waters wild here in the unbounded sea where the mothering ocean folds you in in arms of trailing weed til time and tide claim all we’ve been here in the unbounded sea here in the unbounded sea