Because I Am a Wife

I was a child of the sea with the spray on my face
I was sure of my place, born to the bray so bright
Now I'm a shell on the sand dried to a husk and no more
Life turned to dust on the land, starved on the shore
Like a flower of my youth dying upon the light

Tell me somebody who was it who said that once a woman's wed she's bound to be what she is not
Am I to be condemned to wear a dress in humble acquiescence, grateful for the life I've got
I've traded in the freedom of the tide I the hunger for inside to sit upon the sill and pine
Whoring for this man in service to my clan denying what by right is mine

What happened to the girl touched by sky and sea who lived by the wind of her knife?
Do I abandon her?
Am I forbidden a life,
Because I am a wife?

Father, when I gave you my word,
I was sure as the sun I would see this thing through
But father, of all the men I've known,
There has only been one who could stand next to you

Mistress was I to the waves I was lost I confess to their liquid caress, tossed in a sea of dreams
Now how am I to behave cleaved to the here and the now,
Leave on a whim of a wave or hold to my now
Once I knew I was, how long ago it seems

Tell me somebody where has it been writ my life should come to this, my days of passion should be done?
Often I invite the memory of that night when he and I were joined as one
Strolling on the sands I still can feel his hands and on the wind I hear his voice
Tiernan how I pray that you'll forgive one day the consequences of my choice

What happened to the girl touched by sky and sea who lived by the wind of her knife
Do I abandon her?
Am I forbidden a life,
Because I am a wife?

Because I am a wife!
Because I am a wife!