Under the ruins of a walled city

Crumbling towers and beams of yellow light

No flags of truce, no cries of pity

The siege guns have 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'd once 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.

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 the 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.

This 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'd 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.