underneath The Maple Leaf

Happy Canada Day! Celebrate is by listening to Rik Leaf and Tribe of One’s “The Maple Leaf” on the music page here: http://tribeofone.com/.

 

The Maple Leaf

Rik Leaf, 2008

 

As the harbor draws near the Pacific disappears

In the bight lights of Vancouver

From the bay we make our way along the highway

And start to climb from sea to sky

Before we leave we make a point of eating cherries from the tree

And drinking wine in the Okanagan

As we pass through Banff we have our first chance to see

A prairie sky set on fire far and wide

Underneath the maple leaf we are drawn together

Underneath the maple leaf we are one

We set sail and for days we cross the endless waves of wheat

That crash against the shore under our wheels

Outside the Sault the sun breaks through the fog

As we cut our rugged path along north Superior

We wind our way through narrow lanes in old Quebec

To look across the sea way from Le Château Frontenac

You can almost hear the sounds of 1759

Echoing across the Plains of Abraham

Then we walk the white sand along the beach at Martinique

Eating mussels and drinking Alexander Keith’s

We raise a toast at the edge of the Atlantic coast

To the new found land where it all began

So raise your voice from the west to the east

To the truth north strong and free

 

This song started aboard the Queen of Coquitlam as we were sailing into Horseshoe Bay and ended with us barefoot on Nova Scotia sand, raising bottles of Keith’s in an exuberant toast to our home and native land as the frigid Atlantic washed over our ankles.