Thin Blue Flame Lyrics - Josh Ritter

I became a thin blue flame 

Polished on a mountain range 

And over hills and fields I flew 

Wrapped up in a royal blue 

I flew over Royal City last night 

A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon's light 

Caesar's ghost I saw the war-time tides 

The prince of Denmark's father's still and quiet 

And the whole world was looking to get drowned 

Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds 

I looked over curtains and it was then that I knew 

Only a full house gonna make it through 

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I became a thin blue wire 

That held the world above the fire 

And so it was I saw behind 

Heaven's just a thin blue line 

If God's up there he's in a cold dark room 

The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons 

He bent down and made the world in seven days 

And ever since he's been a'walking away 

Mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes 

Where neither seraphim or raindrops go 

I see an old man wandering the halls alone 

Only a full house gonna make a home 

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I became a thin blue stream 

The smoke between asleep and dreams 

And in that clear blue undertow 

I saw Royal City far below 

Borders soft with refugees 

Streets a'swimming with amputees 

It's a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart 

It's getting harder and harder to tell them apart 

Days are nights and the nights are long 

Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs 

And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign 

Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine 

Now the wolves are howling at our door 

Singing bout vengeance like it's the joy of the Lord 

Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round 

They're guilty when killed and they're killed where they're found 

If what's loosed on earth will be loosed up on high 

It's a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die 

Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please 

The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees 

Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage 

Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage 

Lead pellets peppering aluminum 

Halcyon, laudanum and Opium 

Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup 

His winding sheet is busy winding up 

In darkness he looks for the light that has died 

But you need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find 

And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck 

And like good tragedy that's what we expect 

At night I make plans for a city laid down 

Like the hips of a girl on the spring covered ground 

Spirals and capitals like the twist of a script 

Streets named for heroes that could almost exist 

The fruit trees of Eden and the gardens that seem 

To float like the smoke from a lithium dream 

Cedar trees growing in the cool of the squares 

The young women walking in the portals of prayer 

And the future glass buildings and the past an address 

And the weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless 

And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right 

The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night 

The future descending like a bright chandelier 

And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer 

In Royal City I fell into a trance 

Oh it's hell to believe there ain't a hell of a chance 

I woke beneath a clear blue sky 

The sun a shout the breeze a sigh 

My old hometown and the streets I knew 

Were wrapped up in a royal blue 

I heard my friends laughing out across the fields 

The girls in the gloaming and the birds on the wheel 

The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay 

Cicadas electric in the heat of the day 

A run of Three Sisters and the flush of the land 

And the lake was a diamond in the valley's hand 

The straight of the highway and the scattered out hearts 

They were coming together they pulling apart 

And angels everywhere were in my midst 

In the ones that I loved in the ones that I kissed 

I wondered what it was I'd been looking for up above 

Heaven is so big there ain't no need to look up 

So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air 

Only a full house gonna have a prayer