(This song tells the story of my friendship with a special
lady called Celia,
who lost her leg as a child, and swims early each
morning at the Victorian Glenogle Baths
in the colourful and historic area
of Stockbridge in Edinburgh)
Underneath the bridge, beside the lazy stock
Along the
cobbly ridge and round the stony clock
Down the shady steep, beneath the
leafy domes
Below the chimney keep and opposite the homes
Through the
swinging door and up the sunny stairs
Across the chequered floor and past
the duty chairs
On the wooden ledge, inside the tiny space
Over to the
edge - you've found the water place
Now can you see the welcoming and
cheery face of
The Edinburgh Mermaid?
I said “How long you been a mermaid for?”
She said "I must've been eight I couldnae've been more -
I lost my leg
in a jambed tram door
Without that, I would've been a walker
I said
“But you swim, must be a mile each day
You sort of do your walking in
a watery way
And you certainly make up for it, wouldn't you say,
By
being quite a long distance talker?”
And I say this, friends, with a
smile to my drift,
'Cause we talked as we swam every dawn like a gift.
So at dusk I had the air for my musical shift
Through… etc
Now
do you think at all you could keep up with the pace of
The Edinburgh
Mermaid?
There we both were like a pair of old trout
The more
that we swam, the more we found out
Until we both sort of knew what the
other was about -
There in the Glenogle Pool
We talked about parking
and houses and friends
All about hobbies and musical trends
And how the
water life begins where the city life ends -
Echo-y, floaty and cool
And, did you know, when she's not swimming there
On some other side of
town she'II be swimming elsewhere
Her mer-mer music drifting through the
Edinburgh air
Through…etc
Now would you like to float above the
humanly race with
The Edinburgh Mermaid?
Since I last saw the mermaid, I heard she'd been ill
And had been quite poorly, I take it, until
She received a magnificent
magical pill -
A mountain of letters that grew
From people in pools who
go there to train
Or go to get wet, or to get out of the rain
Or to
work or to help them to get over some strain -
Each stood in a post office
queue
You see, they all missed the cheer she'd brim with
And somebody
nice to grow healthy and slim with
But most of all someone they could talk
to and swim with
I heard that it worked - she's back. Phew!
Through… etc
Now think of all the fishy-washy dreams you could
chase with
The Edinburgh Mermaid