The Last Ship

It's all there in the gospels
the Magdalene girl
Comes to pay her respects
but her mind is awhirl
When she finds the tomb empty
the stone had been rolled
Not a sign of a corpse in the
dark and the cold
When she reaches the door sees
an unholy sight
There's this solitary figure in
a halo of light
He just carries on floating past
Calvary Hill
In an almighty hurry aye but
she might catch him still
Tell me where are ye going
Lord and why in such haste
Now don't hinder me woman
I've no time to waste
For they're launching a boat on
the morrow at noon
And I have to be there before
daybreak
Oh I canna be missing the
lads'll expect me
Why else would the good Lord
himself resurrect me
For nothing will stop me
I have to prevail
Through the teeth of this
tempest in the mouth of a gale
May the angels protect me if all
else should fail
When the last ship sails
Oh the roar of the chains and
the cracking of timbers
The noise at the end of the
world in your ears
As a mountain of steel makes its
way to the sea
And the last ship sails
It's a strange kind of beauty
It's cold and austere
And whatever it was that ye've
done to be here
It's the sum of yr hopes yr
despairs and yr fears
When the last ship sails
Well the first to arrive saw
these signs in the east
Like that strange moving finger
at Balthazar's Feast
Where they asked the advice of
some wandering priest
And the sad ghosts of men whom
they'd thought long deceased
And whatever got said they'd be
counted at least
When the last ship sails
Oh the roar of the chains and
the cracking of timbers
The noise at the end of the
world in your ears
As a mountain of steel makes its
way to the sea
And the last ship sails
And whatever you'd promised
whatever you've done
And whatever the station in life
you've become
In the name of the Father in
the name of the Son
And whatever the weave of this
life that you've spun
On the Earth or in Heaven or
under the Sun
When the last ship sails