[00:00:00] Thin Blue Flame - Josh Ritter [00:00:18] I became a thin blue flame [00:00:20] Polished on a mountain range [00:00:27] And over hills and fields I flew [00:00:35] Wrapped up in a royal blue [00:00:42] I flew over Royal City last night [00:00:46] A bullfighter on the horns of a new moon's light Caesar's ghost [00:00:50] I saw the war-time tides [00:00:52] The prince of Denmark's father still and quiet [00:00:56] And the whole world was looking to get drowned [00:01:01] Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds [00:01:04] I looked over curtains and it was then that I knew [00:01:08] Only a full house gonna make it through [00:01:12] I became a thin blue wire [00:01:17] That held the world above the fire [00:01:27] And so it was I saw behind [00:01:33] Heaven's just a thin blue line [00:01:40] If God's up there he's in a cold dark room [00:01:45] The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons [00:01:48] He bent down and made the world in seven days [00:01:50] And ever since he's been a'walking away [00:01:55] Mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes [00:01:58] Where neither seraphim or raindrops go [00:02:01] I see an old man wandering the halls alone [00:02:05] Only a full house gonna make a home [00:02:09] I became a thin blue stream [00:02:15] The smoke between asleep and dreams [00:02:23] And in that clear blue undertow [00:02:31] I saw Royal City far below [00:02:39] Borders soft with refugees [00:02:42] Streets a'swimming with amputees [00:02:46] It's a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart [00:02:49] It's getting harder and harder to tell them apart [00:02:52] Days are nights and the nights are long [00:02:55] Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs [00:02:59] And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign [00:03:03] Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine [00:03:06] Now the wolves are howling at our door [00:03:10] Singing bout vengeance like it's the joy of the Lord [00:03:13] Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round [00:03:20] If what's loosed on earth will be loosed up on high [00:03:24] It's a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die [00:03:27] Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please [00:03:30] The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees [00:03:35] Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage [00:03:38] Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage [00:03:42] Lead pellets peppering aluminum [00:03:45] Halcyon laudanum and Opium [00:03:49] Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup [00:03:53] His winding sheet is busy winding up [00:03:56] In darkness he looks for the light that has died [00:04:00] But you need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find [00:04:04] And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck [00:04:07] And like good tragedy that's what we expect [00:04:12] At night I make plans for a city laid down [00:04:44] Like the hips of a girl on the spring covered ground [00:04:49] Spirals and capitals like the twist of a script [00:04:52] Streets named for heroes that could almost exist [00:04:56] The fruit trees of Eden and the gardens that seem [00:04:59] To float like the smoke from a lithium dream [00:05:02] Cedar trees growing in the cool of the squares [00:05:06] The young women walking in the portals of prayer [00:05:09] And the future glass buildings and the past an address [00:05:13] And the weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless [00:05:16] And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right [00:05:19] The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night [00:05:23] The future descending like a bright chandelier [00:05:27] And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer [00:05:30] In Royal City I fell into a trance [00:05:33] Oh it's hell to believe there ain't a hell of a chance [00:05:37] I woke beneath a clear blue sky [00:06:27] The sun a shout the breeze a sigh [00:06:36] My old hometown and the streets I knew [00:06:42] Were wrapped up in a royal blue [00:06:50] I heard my friends laughing out across the fields [00:06:55] The girls in the gloaming and the birds on the wheel