It stands as high as a far-off cloud
A mound of earth and silent simmering
Broad and great and ever proud
Its temper gives in, bellowing

What came was another lost day
Coming by another lost flame
To another city
Making it just another lost name
To the annals of time
To the poet's sad rhyme
As nature's worst crime

What we see now is a ruin of old
Where the buildings are not intact
Where the walls are cracked
The rubble is stacked
And the story retold

What they saw was a wave of dust
As hot and loud as anything else
Then they gave it a name as all men must
Their name of falling ashes
Their name of falling ashes

What had come was another lost day
Coming by another lost flame
To another city
Making it just another lost name
To the annals of time
To the poet's sad rhyme
As nature's worst crime

Then they left by passing on
Or in another sad phrase the people were gone
So that the light of next day's dawn
Could never hear their name of falling ashes
Name of falling ashes
Name of falling ashes