The Unarmed Child
III. Requiem
By Adrian Dunn
This is the anthem for all the little kids
who wished that they had some time to live.
This is the an-them for all the little kids
who wished that they had air to breathe.
This is the an-them ‘cause we didn't care.
This is the an-them for kids with bullets in their heads.
This is the anthem, Requiem.
No more bloodshed.
No more babies with bullets in their heads.
No more suffering.
No more poverty.
No more suffering.
No more apathy.
I wonder why another kid has to die,
just because we won't look 'em in the eyes
and tell them the truth about this world we created,
This ain't okay. We've all been baited.
This is the time for us to do better,
We got-ta come together, '
cause this this ain't okay, this needs our help!
I'm begging you, God.
I'm begging you, God.
V. Bird on a Wire
By Shantel Sellers
In winter the stars fell like snow,
Scattered and broken
With nowhere to go,
And I held your breath while you slept,
Dreaming the way sparrows dream
When the spring tides are rising
And even the old stones wear green.
There’s a bird on a wire
Watching over an empty nest,
And it’s me hanging there
Still waiting for something, I guess.
I’m watching through windows
Days I thought that I’d never see,
Then the wild wind rises
And I feel you here next to me.
That winter soon passed
Like all of the seasons before.
Time shrugged off its coat
And left muddy boots at the door.
I walked in green fields,
Swept up in violet reverie,
But the moment was frozen
Because winter never left me.
I can’t unbreak the stars
Or paint them back into the sky.
I can’t turn back the arrow
Or even figure out why.
The days come and go
And all of the seasons will change,
But this season is yours
And it’s here that I’ll write your name.
VI. To Avielle, On Her Fifth, Sixth Birthday
By Shantel Sellers
The glorious stories once written or sung,
Fantastical, mystical, and true,
Leave marks on the heart, and then they live on,
And this is the story of you.
When Maeve gave a wave and Efford waved back,
You knew them and called them by name.
You played in the shade of the dappling leaves,
In the yard by the house down the lane.
You laughed when you passed the gargoyles lair,
You charmed them and sang them to life.
They awoke and they spoke of fishes and stars,
And archers, and fairies in flight,
And this is the story of you.
When Maeve gave a wave and Efford waved back,
You knew them and called them by name.
They stretched out their limbs to hold you again,
As sunlight washed over the lane.
We spin your story on and on,
Firewords! Firewords!
A magical heart, and mighty one,
Firewords! Firewords!
It need not be long to speak to the strong.
I will remember you!
I will.
VII. Lux Aeterna
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine
Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum:
Qui pius es.
VIII. Come to Me in the Silence of the Night
By Christina Rossetti based on the poem, “Echo”
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again tho' cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low
As long ago, my love, how long ago.