Tour du Mont Blanc "Colin's Lament"

Colin’s Lament [Verse 1 — sparse] Colin came to walk Mont Blanc With courage in his heart Some leggings and a telephone And not enough water to start The mountains rose above him White glaciers in the sun He borrowed water from his friends Before the day was done Through meadows bright with flowers He pondered God and man While carefully avoiding cowshit As only Colin can [Chorus] Oh Colin, where’s your water? Where did all your water go? Like the glaciers on the mountains There is less than years ago The ice retreats above him The rivers change below And Colin needs some water More than anyone we know [Verse 2] He found his hiking rhythm With headphones on his ears Sad women sang him ballads Of heartbreak, loss and tears He marched through Alpine pastures Lost deep within their pain Then held his bottle toward a friend And asked for water again Soon asking wasn’t enough though He planned a day ahead: “Could you bring some extra water?” Was what Colin calmly said [Verse 3] He photographed the cattle Put his phone right in their face One tried to lick it from him In that peaceful Alpine place And slowly he grew stronger The mountains taught him well Though every climb still seemed to ask How far a man might fell He traded tennis shoes for boots And found his mountain stride With mournful women in his ears And Mont Blanc at his side [Chorus] Oh Colin, where’s your water? Where did all your water go? Like the snow upon the summits Fading slowly as we go The glaciers keep retreating From the valleys far below And Colin needs some water More than anyone we know [Verse 4 — warmer] On Bovine came a treasure Hard apple pie appeared He shared a precious slice with friends And suddenly was revered Then later came the laundry With Aaron by his side Their shirts and socks and underwear All tumbling unified Whose underwear belonged to whom? Some mysteries must remain A special bond was forged that night Through detergent, love and pain [Bridge — genuinely beautiful] But sometimes Colin stopped there And looked across the view At glaciers carved through mountains Under skies impossibly blue These valleys took ten thousand years To shape the world we crossed Yet every summer takes away A little more that’s lost We laughed beneath those mountains But underneath we knew The photographs we carried home May outlive part of the view [Verse 5] Then came the famous ladders Climbing high above the trees Colin followed rung by rung With surprising Alpine ease In leggings made for lesser things He climbed without complaint A melancholy ballad in his ears Our unlikely Alpine saint [Final Chorus — full, emotional] Oh Colin, you found your rhythm High above the valley floor But the glaciers of Mont Blanc Cannot find what came before We laughed our way around them Through the pastures, rocks and snow And someday these same mountains Won’t be the ones we know The ice retreats above us As another summer goes And memories become the place Where vanished glaciers grow [Outro — stripped back] So here’s to apple pie shared And sad songs on the trail To God and man and cowshit And friendships that prevail To glaciers disappearing And memories that remain To Colin walking onward With sad women in his brain And Colin… Next time… Bring more water.