I showed these lyrics to the person they're about on a plane we were pretty sure was going to crash (10/29/12). We were together at the time. Now we're not. She told me this song made her cry. Mission accomplished, I guess. There's some significance to the imagery of the sheltered town and the bitter sea.
lyrics
You grew up in a sheltered town. It felt hidden, so you turned inward while your neighbours turned around. When I met you in school, you were cloaked in distrust. I'd try talking to you on our field-trip bus back from the city, but you had your walls put up just like that sheltered town you came from. You didn't need anyone. I'd sit some nights and watch a bitter sea swell up in your eyes. It's the sea I came from and where I'll return when I die. In your reflection in glass I learned what heartbreak means, under fluorescent lights next to a blank TV screen. I'd wait patiently willing you to look back at me. A sheltered town, a bitter sea.