Before I go to sleep I sit on the windowsill.

I pull the curtains round me and look out at the sky.

I like the friendly dark when the world is quiet and still.

I watch the stars come out and the moon go sailing by.

This is my special time, just before I go to bed,

This is my special place, my window to the sky

A dreaming place, a place to make up stories in my head

In the peaceful, friendly dark while the moon sails by

Other children's windowsills have guns and bombs outside.

And the night-time is not peaceful and smoke blots out the sky

The children cannot dream and play; instead they cry and hide

In the noisy fearful dark when the tanks go rolling by

Tonight I'll make these wishes when I look out at the moon:

That all the guns and all the bombs will stop forever soon

That all the other children, wherever they may be,

Can sit and dream and watch the sky in safety, just like me

This poem was also published first in Lines in the Sand, 2003