Under the ruins of a walled city
Crumbling towers in 1 of yellow light
No flags of truce, no cries of pity
The 2 guns had been pounding through the night

It took a day to build the city
We walked 3 its streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the fields I'd known
I recognized the 4 that I'd once made
Had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the 5 I'd laid

And if I built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed 6
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the 7
And let me set the battlements on fire

Then I went off to fight some 8
That I'd invented inside my head
Away so long, for years and years
You 9 thought or even wished that I was dead

While the armies are all sleeping
Beneath the tattered flag we'd 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

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'd once played
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