Behind the walls where heat lightning falls   On five starred gnat-faced princess   The buffalo man shoots at the tin cats   Turns and shouts "children, blow your bridges"   On death row halls where dustmen stall   Where time's an enemy and a friend   At night jackals crawl from the cracks in the walls   And salvation is never spoken   Morning sickness breaks the garrison gate   The cavalry cries for treason   The soldier strokes his pony and goes to shine the captain's sword   In this young boy's eyes lie reason   And the sergeant bursts in and cries "i caught a prisoner, captain,   A prisoner, what ho !"   The captain looks up and says "let her go"   "but captain, she patrols the light ships that patrol the sea around   The rainbow tips, whose bagpiper wail unbroken   She haunts the night and the dawnin' light   On her sounds and words your cavalry chokin' "   The captain says "have no fear, boys   For what you hear   Because danger can't be spoken "      The whirlwind crackles and I hear the rustle of shackles   From the stockade door bursts merlin   His eyes red, and swollen, like they've been pushed into the sun   His robes aflame and burnin'   He jumps a horse, tries to get away   But he gets caught in his eyes, tangled in his eyes   He falls to the ground, his neck is broken   His spirit rises high in the western sky      The magician lies an empty token   The sergeant walks over and kicks his body   And says "captain, he's dead - what shall we do with him ? "   The captain says "hang him   For though his live moments on this earth are well spent   And I can se his body is sure well bent   It's magic that must be broken "      Now night cradles low   The penniless weed plays wrath felt in the captain's corner   With anvil spread wide, the captain glides   Each blow to scare her, not to hurt her   She spits "what truth" at the captain's boots   But he holds his rage suspended   The sergeant comes in stinkin' of soldier's gin   And cries "captain, the storm she blows unending"   Oh and the lightning cracked and the sky was hacked   By dagger rain it was torn   And the yard was charged into a raging sea   And the captain ran crazily   For the first time in his life, in the captain's heart   Fear was born      The captain storms out on the stoop, panic strikes   He sees merlin's hung body stretched by the neck   Silhouetted on his door   The sergeant screams "captain, look high, look to the sky !"   Some whirling, swirling emission ...   But the captain falls to his knees crying silent pleas   'cause he knows, he knows, and he thinks to himself   "a magician..."