Under the ruins of a walled city,
Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light,
No flags of truce, no cries of pity,
the siege guns had been pounding through the night.
It took a day to build the city,
We walked through its streets in the afternoon,
As I returned across the fields I'd known,
I recognized the walls that I once made,
Had to stop in my tracks for fear,
Of walking on the mines I'd laid.
And if I built this fortress around your heart,
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire,
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm,
And let me set the battlements on fire.
Then I went off to fight some battle,
That I'd invented inside my head,
Away so long for years and years,
You probably thought or even wished that I was dead.
While the armies are all sleeping,
Beneath that tattered flag we'd made,
I had to stop in my tracks for fear,
Of walking on the mines I'd laid.
And if I built this fortress around your heart,
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire,
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm,
And let me set the battlements on fire.
The prison has now become your home,
a sentence you seem prepared to pay,
It took a day to build the city,
We walked through its streets in the afternoon,
As I returned across the lands I'd known,
I recognized the fields where I once played,
I had to stop in my tracks for fear,
Of walking on the mines I'd laid.
And if I built this fortress around your heart,
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire,
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm,
And let me set the battlements on fire.