Mermaid sits on a Siwash Rock in the harbour

watching the children play

Every day, sun or rain

Old man kneels to the earth to pray

for the rain and the stars and the cars at the heart

A dark and windy Vancouver

A black day in December

She sees the worst is yet to come

A big wave on the horizon

The first wind blowing in

Left Stanley's soldiers felled and broken

Old man kneels to the earth in his mother's garden

Where his own father was laid

Every day, sun or rain

Mermaid sits on her rock and she prays

For the salmon in the sea, for the winged in the trees

For the old man on his knees

For the beauty in the park, and the cars at the heart

Her own sisters and her brothers

And ten thousand friends and lovers

A black day in December.

Mermaid sits on a tide washed rock in the harbour

where the Blue Heron would lay

Everyday sun or rain

old friends fall to the earth and decay

With the city by the sea

Sweet brine in the breeze

And the mountains watching over her Vancouver

A black day in December