Dancing on the Ashes

[Verse 1]
Harry came home with an old man's eyes
'Cross the channel in his brother's red Mack
Two crossed over, now the wrong one lies
Way downriver where the past is
London's walled itself from the worst
Chalk heaps littered with stakes and rings
Nights, they rise 'til the floodgates burst
And Harry goes back to the trenches

[Chorus 1]
Down, down, a hundred years down
Down with the cold vast wreckage of men
Listen to the sound of the little ones' feet
Dancing on the ashes

[Verse 2]
Flares rained down on the Somme that fall
Men spilled steady on a ten-mile wire
Wave after wave, they crumpled like dolls
And the shells never quit crashing
On a low bank where the smell hangs think
Harry huddles over a leg-less wretch
"Yes, dear Jack, I'll finish you quick
"And we'll leave Mother to imagine"

[Chorus 2]
Lives bend, memories shake
Time turns, staggers and spins
How deep a track does one man make
Dancing on the ashes?

[Instrumental]

[Verse 3]
Crosses, monuments, sticks, and stones
Turn to motes in a blank boy's eyes
No one noticed how cold they shone
Under the pretty blonde lashes
Lost, he [?] in a cathode mist
Leveling cities while worlds away
Great-granddaddy lies bound at the wrists
And turning his face from the flashes

[Chorus 3]
Down, down, a hundred years down
Down where God's hands fumble in vain
Listen to the sound of the little ones' feet
Dancing on the ashes