[Intro] A glass case keeps a patient shine Behind a velvet rope and brass The guard says, “Please, admire the stone” The stone says nothing back [Verse 1] Antwerp keeps its polished teeth In cabinets of blue and gold A little crowd leans in to see What hunger learned to hold A widow’s ring, a banker’s eye A prince beneath the floor The labels name the cut and weight The dead remain next door [Chorus] Diamonds, diamonds, cold little moons You purchase vows and inherit rooms Men will kneel, women will stare Ghosts count facets in the museum air [Verse 2] Some call a stone forever Some call forever proof But every hand that closes round it Builds a smaller room The thief sleeps with the necklace The heiress checks the drawer At midnight all the settings click Like footsteps by the door [Chorus] Diamonds, diamonds, bright little lies A hard white heaven with a thousand eyes We polish grief till it looks refined Then hang it proudly from a living kind [Bridge] Far below the showroom lamps A shift begins before the dawn Dust enters lungs, the sirens fade The tally marks go on Hands split stone for someone’s smile Backs bend under borrowed light The gem arrives immaculate The worker does not arrive tonight [Verse 3] The brochure says “rare beauty” The ledger says “secure” The graveyard has no category For labor made obscure Still the jewel sits, immaculate A monarch in its case While every former owner leans With dust upon the face [Final Chorus] Diamonds, diamonds, cold little moons You purchase vows and inherit rooms We call possession permanence While ghosts collect the difference Diamonds, diamonds, brilliant and grim Who owns the stone when the stone owns him? Behind the glass, the dead applaud The finest cut is sharpened fraud [Outro] The guard turns off the museum lights The diamonds keep their view One shines like a locked white eye And asks what it owns in you
