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