Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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High Wings track 12. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_high_wings
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Lyrics:

Oh, I am a spacechild, I was born for the stars.
On bright silver glitterwings I will journey far.
The ship she's my love, my song and my home.
I was made by the gods, the spaceways to roam.

I am a starpilot, trained and taught
And flight is my life-need, it measures each thought
The space-wind's my joy, her course is my pride
It's my pleasure and sorrow the starlanes to ride.

Oh, once I had a lover but now he is gone:
He could not hear the wild call that drove me on;
My heart sang in sorrow, but by then 'twas too late:
I could never return; he had no cause to wait.

But he waited at dockside in Radiant's fair town
For my stardancing spaceship to wing her way down.
He pleaded, saying "Love, without you I'll die."
I said not a word, but looked at the sky.

My love turned and walked into the dark heavy night.
His head bent in sorrow, his shoulders hunched in fright.
On the first jump out from Radiant, a wild, haunting cry
Filled the ship with a death-song as we soared through the sky.

He'd hidden in the drive room, where there's no way to escape,
And no way I would find him till it was too late.
For the drive song's pure beauty, and the drive song is death;
My love heard the ship's song with the last of his breath.

So my ship took my lover, and now I'm alone
As the gods have ordained it, the spaceways to roam:
The space wind and the ship's song will bear me company
It's a sad life, but joyous, on the wide, endless sea.