The Existential Dreadniks - Watso and the Shark | 90s Dark Minimalist Folk Ballad

Описание: I was going for a late-era Leonard Cohen vibe for this. When I started it was going to be a goofy surf rock piece. It changed in the telling.

Watso and the Shark
by Byron Fenris

This is a song about a surfer
A dude we all called Watso
High one night he said
“So what?” backward—
And so he was named

The day had been fine
But the sun was descending
He had time

The horizon told him
That sets were forming
Out beyond the break
He paddled out during the lull
Toward the deep water
To the outside

He turned, and waited in the still quiet
For the slow energy of gathering power
Waiting for the lift
Waiting for the water
To feel just right

He felt the thickening of the swells
And knew it was close
He began to paddle
And then he felt it

The presence, the shift
Of water beneath him
Of something large passing by
Down in the darkness below
Water that did not feel right at all

He knew what it was
They were out here
It was their sea
No worries, they didn’t usually eat people
Except for sometimes

Waiting for the lift
Waiting for the water
To feel just right

It was time to commit
The swells were ready
He paddled to meet
The speed of the growing wave
And readied for takeoff

There was a stillness behind him
A pressure
A change in the water
The shark, too
Was ready to commit

Up, then! The wave was growing
He felt the lift
The wave standing
Time to go

Head down, eyes forward
He took off
Feeling the drop
Momentum picking up
But the shark was moving
He felt it behind him
Like a weight

There! A shadow under the drop
It was pacing him
Moving ahead slightly
To intercept

“Not gonna make it easy for you, buddy,”
Watso said

And he began to pump
Picking up speed
Carving high, then low
Cutting a hard line down the face
But he knew
That it wouldn’t be enough

But the wave was high
He had a shot
He set the rail
And stalled
With a left-hand drag

As the wave’s lip
Threw over him
And he entered the green room
Threading the tube
Parallel to the pale shore

“How do you like this move, buddy?” he said
Low in the crouch and covered
Making good distance
Feeling alive

But then he saw
Ahead
Where the barrel ended
A shadow held the exit

It broke his line just enough
He felt the board skip
He felt the rail let go

As the barrel closed
In a whitewater explosion
And he wiped out
Shark and board lost
In a roar of thunder
And foam

And in that whitewater blur
He saw
Or thought he saw
The flash of teeth
Triangular, serrated
Sharp

There was a sudden tug on his leg
No pain
Just a tug
He knew what that meant

But moments later
When he staggered onto the beach
He realized he was doing it
On two legs

The tether to his board
Was severed

Watso turned to the sea
And said:

“Man, I loved that board—
But I love my leg
A bit more.
Bon appétit, buddy.”

And he walked up the beach
In the sunset
Whistling


Disclaimer: The Existential Dreadniks are an AI "band." However, the song is created by a human USING AI as a tool, it is NOT created BY AI. Enjoy!

Byron's Halloween novel The Late Edge of October is available cheap on kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DLVJB7S8
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Who is Byron Fenris? http://byronfenris.com
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