Whistle a Tune

The sunlight dapples the silent water,
Peeking down through the leaves on the trees,
Dragonflies hover like listless fairies,
As they float on the summer-time breeze,
And here my love lies sleeping now,
As my oars dip in to the stream,
And all the worms fly swiftly now,
Chased away by the ravenous bream.

A moment later she wakes and stretches,
So I whisper that we're almost there,
She's sitting up to brush back the tresses,
Of her beautiful long red hair,
I see the angry bruises now,
Upon a face too acquainted with pain,
There'll be no more abuses now,
I won't let anyone hurt her again.

And I whistle a sad tune,
From the happiest part of my heart,
Yes, I whistle a tune.

Jacob's corpse is wrapped in a canvas,
Lying prone at the stern of the boat,
Weighted down with rocks and boulders,
To be sure that the body won't float,
I see my love is weeping now,
As we push him out over the side,
I tell her Jacob is sleeping now,
Within a fate only God can decide.

And I whistle a sad tune,
From the happiest part of my heart,
Yes, I whistle a tune.

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I know what you did last summer... ;)

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[img]https://a.1stdibscdn.com/archivesE/upload/f_25283/f_66013031486571766676/ART_8429_l.JPG[/img]

[notes]
"I know what you did last summer" - lol.

This actually started off very innocently, just notes I made with a little guitar part
strummed slowly but kinda jazzy which was sort of saying "whistle something..." to me.

Anyway, there were lots of rather cutesy descriptions of boating down the river in summer
building up and I began to think it was getting to be less Jerome K Jerome and more AA Milne
if anything. So I stopped for a bit.

Then some time later I was listening to Nick Cave or PJ Harvey (possibly both...) and
something just said "darker..." to me.

So the unassailable fact presented here is that the narrator and a red-haired woman dump
a body in the river. The implication being that "Jacob" was responsible for hurting the
aforementioned female in some way.

I don't really say much more than that so there are a number of stories that could build
around it TBH. (The boaters didn't necessarily even kill Jacob.) I also don't explicitly
reveal the woman's releationship to the rower (other than a bond of love) and in fact
don't actually specify age or gender. I've imagined it in a few ways...

[img]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/art/2016/07/13/lesbian_kiss_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNiE-Mrx1NkVNK-5leJTNIIpcJcYmaR3n9ZH-3CaApuA.jpg?imwidth=480[/img]

The little refrain is suppose to indicate remorse on the part of the rower (as do the tears
of the woman in v3). i.e even the very happiest part of them contains only sad tunes on
this mournful occasion but, they still feel compelled to whistle. Likely more to do
with it being standard practise for rowers than inspired by my dodgy playing.

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Loved this added it to Toms amazing guitar. Hope you like it. [wl]275202[/wl]

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