"The Queen and the Soldier" Suzanne Vega

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The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door.
He said : "I am not fighting for you anymore !"
And the queen knew she'd seen his face some place before
And slowly she let 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'm leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will ;
Only first I am asking you why ?"

Down the long narrow hall he was led,
Into her room with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head ;
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.
Now 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.

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 top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground.

"Tell me : how angry 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 grey
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.

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 strangeling on the solitude she prefered,
The battle continued on...