Burning Ship

Sixty thousand sheep on a burning ship
Sailing across the deep blue sea
And not a soul in sight
And the boiler room caught fire
And the men, the hired men
They set off signals
And nearby boats came by
And they rescued them
And off they went on their way
To South America from Australia
Sixty thousand sheep
On the great, great blue sea
And not a soul in sight
For what purpose? For what purpose?

What great things happening on this planet
Huge clusters of animals going up in smoke
Two million cows in Great Britain
Gone in one month
Two million cows
Who can separate the cows from the people?

Two hundred elephants found in a clearing
Ghastly silence when they found them
Pregnant cows, baby elephants
And not a soul in sight
In one fell swoop

And then the swoop of swallows
As they gather in the fall
Getting ready to prepare to start to begin
To set upon their long, long flight
At what moment, Lord
At what precise moment
Do they decide?