If I Falter

If I Falter by Michael R. Burch for Beth If I regret fire in the sunset exploding on the horizon, then let me regret loving you. If I forget even for a moment that you are the only one, then let me forget that the sky is blue. If I should yearn in a season of discontentment for the vagabond light of a companionless moon, let dawn remind me that you are my sun. If I should burn—one moment less brightly, one instant less true— then with wild scorching kisses, inflame me, inflame me, inflame me anew. # Children of Gaza Lyrics by Michael R. Burch I. Where does the Butterfly go? I'd love to sing about things of beauty, like a butterfly, fluttering amid flowers, but I can't, I can't … Where does the butterfly go when lightning rails when thunder howls when hailstones scream while winter scowls and nights compound dark frosts with snow, where does the butterfly go? Where does the rose hide its bloom when night descends oblique and chill beyond the power of moonlight to fill? When the only relief's a banked fire's glow, where does the butterfly go? Where does the butterfly go when mothers cry while children die and politicians lie, politicians lie? When the darkness of grief blots out all that we know: when love and life are running low, where does the butterfly go? And how shall the spirit take wing when life is harsh, too harsh to face, and hope is flown without a trace? Oh, when the light of life runs low, where does the butterfly go, where does the butterfly go? II. When the soldiers came to our house, I was quiet, quiet as a mouse… But when they beat down our door with a battering ram, and I heard their machine guns go "Blam! Blam! Blam!" I ran! I ran! I ran! First I ran to the cupboard and crept inside; then I fled to my bed and crawled under, to hide. I could hear my mother shushing my sister… How I hoped and prayed that the bullets missed her! My sister! My sister! My sister! Then I ran next door, to my uncle's house, still quiet, quiet as a mouse... Young as I am, I did understand that they had come to take our land! Our land! Our land! Our land! They've come to take our land! They shot my father, they shot my mother, they shot my dear sister, and my big brother! They shot down my hopes, they shot down my dreams! I still hear their screams! Their screams! Their screams! Now I am here: small, and sad, and still ... no mother, no father, no family, no will. They took everything I ever had. Now how can I live, with no mom and no dad? How can I live, with no mom and no dad? How can I live? How can I live? III. For God’s sake, ah, for God's sake, I’m only a child? and all you’ve allowed me to learn are these tears scalding my cheeks, this ache in my gut at the sight of so many corpses, so much horrifying blood! For God’s sake, I’m only a child? you talk about your need for “security,” but what about my right to play in streets not piled with dead bodies still smoking with white phosphorous! Ah, for God’s sake, I’m only a child? for me there's no beauty in the world and peace has become an impossible dream; destruction is all I know because of your deceptions. For God’s sake, I’m only a child? fear and terror surround me stealing my breath as I lie shaking like a windblown leaf. For God’s sake, for God's sake, I'm only a child, I'm only a child, I'm only a child. IV. If I were King of the World, I would make every child free, for my people’s sake. And once I had freed them, they’d all run and scream straight to my palace, for free ice cream! Why are you laughing? Can’t a young king dream? If I were King of the World, I would banish hatred and war, and make mean men vanish. Then, in their place, I’d bring in a circus with lions and tigers (but they’d never hurt us!) If I were King of the World, I would teach the preachers to always do as they preach; and so they could practice being of good cheer, we’d have Christmas and sweets each day of the year! Why are you laughing? Some dreams do appear! If I were King of the World, I would send my couns'lors of peace to the wide world’s end ... But all this hard dreaming is making me thirsty! I proclaim lemonade; please bring it in a hurry! If I were King of the World, I would fire racists and bigots, with their message so dire. And we wouldn’t build walls, to shut people out. I would build amusement parks, have no doubt! If I were King of the World, I would make every child blessed, for my people’s sake, and every child safe, and every child free, and every child happy, especially me! Why are you laughing? Appoint me and see! V. There never was a fonder smile than mother's smile, no softer touch than mother's touch. So sleep awhile and know she loves you more than "much". So more than "much", much more than "all". Though tender words, these do not speak of love at all, nor how we fall and mother's there, nor how we reach from nightmares in the ticking night and she is there to hold us tight. There never was a stronger back than father's back, that held our weight and lifted us, when we were small, and bore us till we reached the gate, then held our hands that first bright mile till we could run, and did, and flew. But, oh, a mother's tender smile will leap and follow after you! # Happily Never After Michael R. Burch He did not think of love of Her at all frog-plangent nights, as moons engoldened roads through crumbling stonewalled provinces, where toads (nee princes) ruled in chinks and grew so small at last to be invisible. He smiled (the fables erred so curiously), and thought bemusedly of being reconciled to human flesh, because his heart was not incapable of love, but, being cursed a second time, could only love a toad’s, and listened as inflated frogs rehearsed cheekbulging tales of anguish from green moats, and thought of her soft croak, her skin fine-warted, his anemic flesh, and how true love was thwarted.