Midafternoon, high summer On the island's southern shore Just you and your boy Zorba Going where the water's warm Where the sea's a desolation It ain't much better than the land And any trace of civilisation Has been long buried in the sand
Like waves on thirsty beaches Where goats with human faces And the skeletons of horses They roam the fourth dimension
Long before anyone drank hemlock Long before anyone got nailed up Two afternoons that reign ‘cause they were forever going to pains Tryin' make their names tearing each other up This morn you woke and spoke of dreaming About two endless afternoons Well I feel old by hotel pools But in the future I'll be history Though I'm happy going anywhere you choose
The sea, the sky, your dreaming eyes And a heat that won't let up I hear someone say “I see the coast of Africa from here” But you're asleep or you don't bother looking up
They said that later on there'd be a party on the beach I look around me now and I can see it's still at large I would not hold them to their promises ‘cause this could all be a mirage We used to dive down to the bottom Way out beyond the shore But something's changed Where, what, how, when? I do not really think I wanna know about What's down there anymore You might also like Well the last time we went down there I was not feeling very good But you could always hold your breath A whole lot longer than I could
Well of course you'd go a long way in a short time If you felt that's what you wanted You've only gotta back yourself for once But me I'm trying to enjoy two afternoons under the dunes Though all I've made's a detailed survey of the surface of the sun
Just say from this day forward You won't ever look behind And everything that you believe in It just depends on what you find