[Verse 1]
Salt on my lips, red earth in my veins,
Spencer Gulf whispers under steel-blue planes.
Point Lowly lanterns, nights that never tire,
Cuttle clouds gather, water running hot with fire.
Algal tides rising, secrets in the bloom,
Quorum-sensing murmurs call a green, devouring moon.
I watched the shallows darken, thought the story closed—
Still I held a thorned bouquet I’d named my Country Rose.
[Pre-Chorus]
But even in the fevered sea, I heard a vow inside of me—
If home is hurting, I will be the hands that heal.
[Chorus]
Country Rose, carry me home,
Over the dunes and the white-capped foam.
Where island chains and volcano bones
Hold every dream I’ve ever known.
Country Rose, carry me home,
When winds turn warm and courage grows—
I’ll stand my ground on this southern coast;
Take me home, my Country Rose.
[Verse 2]
Sir Joseph Banks islands, pearl of broken light,
I learned to read the water by the color of the night.
Then giants passed beneath me, gentle thunder, slow—
Their silver backs like stories only elders know.
Iron in their footsteps, yes, the ocean knows it too,
Gardeners of the far blue wild with drifting whale-poo.
From brown to breathing emerald, life began to rise—
And I felt the future stirring like a sunrise in my eyes.
[Pre-Chorus]
If grief can be a compass rose, it points to where the river flows,
And where we choose, together, what the tide reveals.
[Chorus]
Country Rose, carry me home,
Over the dunes and the white-capped foam.
Where island chains and volcano bones
Hold every dream I’ve ever known.
Country Rose, carry me home,
When winds turn warm and courage grows—
I’ll stand my ground on this southern coast;
Take me home, my Country Rose.
[Bridge - breakdown—piano & soft whale-song pad]
No one drifts alone—not here, not anymore.
If you can’t find your purpose, love, we’ll lay it at your door.
Like stars that steer the night, like beacons on the bay,
We’ll chart a Star-Trek course where every soul has place.
Choose your light—or if you won’t, we’ll lend you ours to start;
The work of home is holding you inside a common heart.
[Key Change + Final Chorus]
Country Rose, carry me home,
Lift me above where the hot winds moan.
From Spencer’s reach to Lowly’s stones,
I hear the coast call flesh and bone.
Country Rose, carry me home,
[Big Celine Moment]
Where every voice in chorus grows—
We rise as one, we never close;
Take me home, my Country Rose.
[Outro - a cappella → piano button]
Carry me, carry me—
Carry me home, my Country Rose.
