I should like to rule the world; I think it's my turn now

I could make things so much better and I'm going to tell you how:

I'd melt down all the guns and bombs and all those evil things,

And turn them into bicycles and carousels and swings.

Turn them into roller skates and bongo drums and bells,

Make spinning tops and glockenspiels from all the tanks and shells.

Fill the world with happy things that make a happy noise;

Shout it all around the earth: Don't make war, make toys!

This poem was first published in Lines in the Sand, new writing on war and peace,

Edited by Mary Hoffman and Rhiannon Lassiter, published by Frances Lincoln 2003.