Elizabeth, that thundercloud Is creeping up the Empire Hill There's shadows on the overpass And puddles in the old dirt path Peoria lay silent, still In the belly of the overgrown All quiet on the open plain Footprints to the family plot Where evermore will restless sorrow sleep In a broken heap Cemetery guns go bang bang bang Shooting all the sky full of holes Twenty-one times in row For the blue war widow in the gray raincoat On the green grass down below Elizabeth, our fathers came And settled where the ground was flat Drew water from the Indian wells Cut timber from the rolling fells Grandaddy-o bled hearth and home For oiling the company gears No rest for the errant ones Godspeed their reckless sons Who evermore play their forefathers' hands On the foreign sands Cemetery guns go bang bang bang Shooting all the sky full of holes Twenty-one times in row For the blue war widow in the gray raincoat On the green grass down below Cemetery guns go bang bang bang Shooting all the sky full of holes Twenty-one times in row For the blue war widow in the gray raincoat On the green grass down below