Red and white outside the swell
Ringing like a patient bell
We swam one day out past the rope
Out to the buoy, out of scope
We held its side and caught our breath
Two hearts loud as a tiny death
It marks the spot where safe ends
And the deeper blue begins
I'm still holding to that buoy
Half in fear and half in joy
You swam on to farther blue
I stayed marking where I knew you
The lifeguards whistled us back in
You grinned and made it look like sin
That afternoon, that salty laugh
I've kept the buoy as my photograph
It marks the spot where safe ends
And the deeper blue begins
I'm still holding to that buoy
Bobbing steady, mostly coy
It rings whenever swells go through
A little bell that sounds like you
Buoys don't sail and don't sink
They just hold the line and think
I'm still holding to that buoy
Half in fear and half in joy
Someday I'll let the deep have me
Till then I ring here, quietly
Red and white outside the swell
Some hearts anchor where they fell
