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 had been pounding all through the night It took a day to build the city We walked through its streets in the afternoon As I returned across the field's I'd known I recognized the walls that I 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 track 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 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
