Go to sleep my little one By Amal de Chickera Go to sleep my little one, You’re safe in my embrace. Close your eyes my little one, No monsters in this place. I call you little, you’ve grown so big. You’ve worked so hard to learn: To speak, to eat, to walk, to run, To paint whole worlds, to wash your bum, To sing new songs, cartwheel and think, To add, divide, ask questions, wink, To tell great jokes, know wrong from right, To show you care, to win a fight. You are my world, my little one, Your smile, your voice, your shining eyes. I am so sorry, my little one, When I see you now, I hear their cries. The wails and screams of little ones, Just like you, precious, pure, good. Tormented, hurt, maimed, orphaned, killed, Parched of water, starved of food This evil, this hell that defies words, Takes little ones like you each day. When I look at you, I now see them, And broken, I do turn away. We have failed them, my little one, In a flash, I’d take their place. If I could take their pain, their death, If I could lift them up in grace. And now I’m crying, my little one, I’m burning deep inside. I keep you safe, but can’t save them, From this heartless genocide. We can’t give up, my little one, We fight, write, strike, sue, boycott, march. For freedom, justice, to ease this great pain, So little ones can be little ones again. 17