On the Flip of a Coin

From the point he gazed, from the choice was made
But walk the cave or the shore
The oily cave seemed to breathe on him from gravestone jaws
His little hand grasped in anguish as he weighed up his coin
Somewhere a blue eyed girl in the world is just waiting for a boy

Footprints trailed as if trod by slaves up to the gray cave floor
But not one graze from anything ever escaping this fort
So with coin on hand his joy came back when ordered to take the shore
Why on earth, as he wandered the warmth am I obeying this coin

Turn your life on the flip of this coin
Turn upside, a choice you'd normally avoid
And promise me you'll follow what it says
Whatever it says

Again, walk within the trusted beach or swim the swell of the sea
And again the scarier alternative looked like certain death to he
He'd never learnt to skill of swimming, it never occurred to be very easy
And again he winced as he flipped his coin and it twirled to his feet

How is this sane? He blamed the coin now aiming for the waves
As he hesitated at the swirl of water that now raged and rained
Blue eyed girls were waiting and he was drowning in the spray
Blue eyed girls, he should have been acquainted with
But for shouting and flailing

Turn your life on the flip of this coin
Turn upside a choice you'd normally avoid
And promise me you'll follow what it says
Whatever it says

He finally slugs it back to land feeling chewed up and foolish
Empties his pockets on the sand spewing a pool each
Staggers back to his dad who's too cool to be
So he says, why did you have me follow this stupid rule, please

To be honest little fellow, I'll tell you I was just as afraid as you
But you said you wanted to get with people and places ever new
And I got a bit scared about the fate of my baby son's future
So I invented a reason to see whether you could ever make do

As soon as you appeared behind that rock looking angry at me
I soon realized what a hell of a man you've ended up being
I knew you'd worked out how to swim which I hadn't had in me
And I stand as a companion of you proudest a man has ever been

Turn your life on the flip of this coin
Turn upside a choice you'd normally avoid
And promise me you'll follow what it says
Whatever it says