Under the ruins of a walled city Crumbling tars and beams of yellow lightNo flags of truth, no cries of pity Siege guns have been pounding through the nightsIt took a day to build a city We walked through its streets in the afternoonAs I returned across the fields I'd known I recognized the walls that I'd once madeHad to stop in my tracks for fear Of walking on the mines I laidAnd if I built this fortress around your heart And circled you in trenches and barbed wireThen let me build a bridge, for I cannot build a chasm Let me set the battlements on fireThen I went off to fight some battle That I'd invented inside my headWho waited so long for years and years Who probably thought or even wished that I was deadWhile the armies all are sleeping Beneath the tattered flag we'd madeHad to stop in my tracks for fear Of walking on the mines I laidAnd if I built this fortress around your heart And circled you in trenches and barbed wireThen let me build a bridge, for I cannot build a chasm Let me set the battlements on fireThis prison has now become your home A sentence you seem prepared to payIt took a day to build the city We walked through its streets in the afternoonAs I returned across the lands I'd known I recognized the fields where I'd once playedHad to stop in my tracks for fear Of walking on the mines I laidAnd if I built this fortress around your heart And circled you in trenches and barbed wireThen let me build a bridge, for I cannot build a chasm Let me set the battlements on fireLet me build a bridge, for I cannot build a chasm Let me set the battlements on fireLet me build a bridge, for I cannot build a chasm Let me set the battlements on fire