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