If I Must Die

If I must die, let it be before the break of dawn When peace and stillness sway in people, homes, and places When earsplitting music in alcohol selling places, cease When even the foul and abusive drunks have returned home And even the roughneck of husbands are all calm in sleep And naughty children are even obedient ones in sleep And husbands and wives are cuddled in beds, adoration in reign If I must die, let it be before the break of dawn When the Morning Star, in the West, is sparkling bright That warns the witches and robbers of the coming light When day is about to break and, at the peak of calm When zephyr wafts so coolly even in months of tortured snooze When guards, the bereaved, even the sick are knocked by snooze When even the warring dogs have ceased fire and are serene If I must die, let it be before the break of dawn When the time is at its darkest mark, its dimmest part When vigor is to be revived in people’s mind set When the time is at the peak of dark; when witches hunt and roam When incest, buttering, rape, defilement is without When husbands are loving ones and wives are submissive ones, flat-out Not times like night or evening, morning, noon when chaos is in reign