The orange sun splays across the sea in setting array

It makes me think of old movies in their brand-new technicolor

And bobbing in the ocean you see these little dots

At first you pause to wonder, then it becomes clear all at once

You're looking out at sea lions, drifting in the water

While all their rubbery brothers are screaming on the rocks.

But they know what is better, those water-treading beasts

They know that the water holds the sun so fierce

 

And then I'm on a rocky ledge with sand blowing in my eyes

I'm overlooking vast mesa deserts glowing with sunrise

The sharp stink of sulfur fills my  nostrils but I don't mind

Because the barren land around me is impossibly sublime.

 

And now I'm on a mountain, somewhere in the Rockies

What once I found impregnable from the highway far below

Slowly I've ascended and it has become my home

With wild flowers, flowing streams, and hills lined with boulders

I'm hiking miles of steep, challenging trails and loving every moment

 

At last I'm climbing up a cliff

I scarce believe I've come so far

And clinging to a crevice, just enough to hold my fingers

I feel so scared and nervous, yet totally alive.

 

It's not what many people think to make your life

To some its constant treading in the ocean, when on a rock you could lie

And on this rock they claim you see the same old stuff

But just like those drifting lions I know

That the ocean holds the sun.