Standing alone by the edge of a river He's traded his life for a glass full of tears The bargain was quick for one's life is less dearer When the sand's running out and the ending is near The ending is near The ending is near The ending is... The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean He put on the mast all the canvas she'd take Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller The ship was his coffin this moment his wake Runaway reasons Runaway seasons Time is a treason That I give back to you now The wind touched the sail and the ship Moved the ocean The wind from the storm set the course she would take From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean From the wake of Magellan to Magellan's wake Runaway reasons Runaway seasons Everything in it Hours and minutes You take tomorrow Because it means nothing To me To me To... In the dark he heard a whisper Asking him to understand In the desert look for water On the ocean look for land In the dark he heard a whisper Asking him to understand In the desert look for water On the ocean look for land And there in the waves Was a man in his grave That he saw in the night 'Tween the flashes of light And he Could not be there And all he had prayed Or had given away He now found to be wrong In the grip of the storm And he Could not be there Could you keep our lives together Safely back onto the shore Could you grant this last illusion Only this and nothing more Could you keep our lives together Safely back onto the shore Could you grant this last illusion Only this and nothing more And all at once the heavens bled their fire The anchor broke the chains they flew away And suddenly the waves were reaching higher And in the dark I thought I heard them say Could you keep our lives together Safely back onto the shore Could you grant this last illusion Only this and nothing more But what the sailor did not know And would never learn Was on that beach now far away The young child had returned And finding the broken hourglass He reset it upright Then placed sand from the beach inside And placed the lid on tight Then examining his handiwork He left it in the sand And then he quickly ran back home Thinking god would understand Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow Everything I ever had for just one more night And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow Just another final hour onto my life Did you ever really want to Did you ever really want to Lord, tell me how it will be Lord, tell me how it will be Standing once more by a boat on a river He pushes it off while he stays on the land And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer Which someone had refilled by hand And somewhere that boat's now adrift on the Ocean The mast at full sail and there's no one on board The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean Only his footprints all alone on the shore And soon they're no more No more No more Now our story's nearly over And we've reached the final scene But we're sure that some have wondered What had happened in-between From the moment when the boy was saved And their boat had reached the shore Well, they talked about life and death And perhaps a little more The boy said he'd been a stowaway Aboard the "maersk dubai" When the captain had him thrown to the sea And left him there to die At this the old sailor had stood up His face now filled with rage And swore that he would never rest Until that captain had been caged But the boy implored the sailor That he not say a word Because he was an illegal immigrant And as of recently he'd heard That going to the authorities Could often be unwise When one's paper were illegal The police just might not sympathize So when they reached the harbor With their journey at an end He left the boy on another ship Whose captain was a friend And when he saw it pull to sea And was once more all alone He leaned against the tiller And turned his ship back home Eventually he reached that beach He'd left the night before Then stepped a last time from the boat And waded to the shore Then the old man picked the glass up That he had left behind And headed for the small cafe For it was nearly time And the ocean watched him leaving To find his lady fair And as he left he heard her last words Drifting in the air That every man Is born you see Beneath the sword Damocles For young and old Are all alive On that next beat On which we ride And that beat is such A fragile thing In both old men Or youthful king And that beat Stands all alone you see Between us And black eternity And until that time When death won't wait Let each man rage Against his fate