The Queen and the Soldier

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            The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
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            He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
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            And the queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
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            And slowly she led him inside

            He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
            And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill
            But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
            Only first I am asking you why"

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                               Down in the long narrow hall he was led
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                               Into her rooms with her tapestries red
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                               And she never once took the crown from her head
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                               And she asked him there to sit down

            He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young
            But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
            And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
            And now will you tell me why?"

            Well, the young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
            She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
            But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry
            But she closed herself up like a fan

                               Well she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
                               It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"
                               And he laid his hand then on the top of her head
                               And he bowed her down to the ground
                                              *Interlude*   (chorus)

            "Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
            As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed
            But I won't march again on your battlefield"
            And he took her to the window to see

            And the sun it was gold, though the sky it was gray
            And she wanted more than she ever could say
            But she knew how it frightened her and she turned away
            And would not look at his face again

                               And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
                               To get all I deserve and to give all I can
                               And to love a young woman who I don't understand
                               Your highness, your ways are very strange"

            But the crown it had fallen, and she thought she would break
            And she stood there ashamed of the way her heart ached
            And she took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
            She would only be a moment inside

            Out in the distance her order was heard
            And the soldier was killed still waiting for her word
            And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
            The battle continued on...
                                              *Outro*   (chorus)