Aren't Captives lyrics

Song information

Artist: Noe Venable
Album: Down Easy

Lyrics

The pilot of the 747 couldn't stop thinking about the young pilot whose voice he'd heard over the radio
In his hotel room that evening he imagined the successful water landing
The torn plane sank down into the light eating water, a rope came worming down from above
The young pilot was choking on freezing salt, until he was scrambling into a harness
Until he was airborne, lifted for the first time since childhood without the womb of walls around him
In childhold there were hands to lift him, now there are ropes, and machines that plow water and spit sky
Dangling, salvaged. limp. live weight. whale bait. living meat. he's waving! alive
Now upward to dry deck and cheering strangers

The next day when he got to the airport for his next flight, the pilot of the 747 heard about the young pilot who had been killed
Crashing into the ocean after his cessna lost oil pressure
This was the man whose voice had kept him flipping back through the channels to listen
The voice had kept its balance as the slow descent began
The strange limbo of a man who has time to think about it
A man who has twenty minutes until question mark
Until life or question mark? and the pilot of the 747 remembered the young pilots words
The sky against the roofs. the warm rain in summer. his girl. her favorite dress. blue
Air conditioned. she is transluscent in the light. she is soft and white

The children they would have someday together
She told him, they're always there, towing along behind us, like balloons tied to our ankles
They aren't captives, just clouds. only clouds

He was thinking of you. of you
And blue. and aren't captives, tied to our ankles