|Em  |Em  |Em  |Em  |Em  |Em  G  | 
|G   |G  |C  |C  |C  |Em

[Verse 1]
Em
Desert air on skin

The chill of empty space
G
The nomad's grin
                           C
The sand, the wave and the cold
                    Em
Will drive him back in

Will keep them close to him

[Refrain]
              Em
And they will hide inside
              G
Behind blind mirrors

Trembling in tents
C
Hearts weak with fear

He knows
                 Em
He likes to keep them near

[Verse 2]
             Em
And at the night
                         G
With a pride too big to swallow
                   C
And with leprous hands
                          Em
Has them hum and dance to him

[Refrain]
                         Em
For they have boiled his faith
       G
Into abstraction
                        C
And coiled up in their sickrooms
                                  Em
Their bodies stir-stir-stirring in blankets

[Verse 3]
                         Em
Like a mother's withered breasts
                      G
They still set him to dreaming
            C                       Em
Of quartering steel and of climbing fire

[Refrain]
                      Em
With a dripping honey hole
                       G
He'll be winning them over
                     C
And with calculated neglect
                      Em
He likes to know them there

[Verse 4]
              Em
And they will know

That they may only know
     G
The laws of Things
              C
Never their meaning
            Em
Only their laws

[Refrain]
                          Em
And they will bury their holy blade
        G
Deep in devoted chests
           C
And after such knowledge
    Em
What forgiveness?

[Verse 5]
       Em
Desert air on skin

The chill of empty space
     G
The smell of emptied bodies
                  C
The sand, the wave
            Em
And nothing