Nine Rocks

Kleora song / NINE ROCKS Rope above the water, mud below the wall, turn it for my sisters, turn it till I fall. White hem in the morning, mud hem by the noon, salt out of the water, honey out of June. Faster, faster, faster, don't you let it drop. Round it comes and round again, and it doesn't stop. Tide brings a guest in, ebb leads one away, nine rocks in the water, count them while you play. One, two, three, four, five. Nine waves for the losing, count them, hold them still. Water will not stand for it. Stone will. Nine rocks in the shallows, black backs in the green, count them and you're even, count them and you're clean. Faster, faster, faster, don't you let it drop. Round it comes and round again, and it doesn't stop. Tide brings a guest in, ebb leads one away, nine rocks in the water, count them while you play. One, two, three, four, five. Two bells on the water, one sail in the sun, somebody's string has found it and the children run. I knew it in my ankles before I knew the tune, the way you know a doorway, the way you know the moon. Sing me salt, sing me sail, sing me wine and weather, sing the ones that came back in, sing them all together. Not the goats, not the crown, not the purple, not this. Sing me anything, anything, anything but this. It stopped in the middle of a bar, the rope went into the mud, two of mine went over the water, and nobody sang the rest. Warm hand, warm stone, another song, another one. Lamps going down the water, little flames in a row, and the rope is in the courtyard where the children go. Tide brings a guest in, ebb leads one away, nine rocks in the water, count them while you play. One, two, three, four, five. Tide brings a guest in, ebb leads one away, nine rocks in the water, count them while you… Ai gen