Go to sleep, my little tabby cat
I love to watch you on my kitchen mat
Sleep, your head between your outstretched paws
Dreaming of those mice
Between your little jaws
Dream of mousies if they’re what you crave
And we shall plant a little mouse’s grave
Cat and mouse, just God by another name
So sleep, my little tabby—sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Go to sleep, my lovely little house
Big enough to hold both cat and mouse
To span both poles, the souls of man and wife
To hold both happiness
and sadness, death and life
Sleep, my little house in Watertown
Though we both know that someday you’ll burn down
House and town, just God by another name
So sleep, my little house, then—sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Go to sleep, my little nation-state
With a stomach-ache from all the oil you ate
Filled with houses, people, cars and pets
Synagogues and churches,
mosques with minarets
How long you’ll endure it’s hard to know
Kropotkin thought you’d crumble long ago
But ‘til you face the final twilight’s gleam
Sleep, my little country—sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Go to sleep, my little planet Earth
Made of seas and deserts, rocks and dirt
Your skin tattooed by nations’ borderlines
Each a boundary that
both separates and joins
A choir of nations that your praise could sing
So sweetly, were we only listening
Gaia, Goddess by another name
So sleep, my little planet—sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Sleep, my little Sun that shines so bright
For day is just far brighter sun starlight
Sleep, my little Sol, and have no doubt
The day will come when you’ll
go nova and burn out
We planets at your side will be consumed
But how can we be sad that we are doomed?
Every star, just God by another name
So sleep, my little Sun, then—sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Go to sleep, my little galaxy
Twirl your spiral arms so valiantly
Blaze into the endless black expanse
Where you and all your brother
galaxies do dance
Dance and sparkle, little fireflies
Each a flame that’s born, goes dark and dies
Repeating one more of God’s many names
So sleep, my little galaxy—and dream
Sleep and dream
So go to sleep, my little tabby cat
You are a universe, imagine that!
With old star embers in your amber eye
So I’ll sing you—the universe’s lullaby
Sleep, my little universe and friend
Each song makes the world begin and end
Every song, just God by another name
So sleep my little tabby—sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Sleep and dream
Copyright 2004 Mark Simos/Devachan Music (BMI) — All Rights Reserved.
Mark Simos is Assistant Professor of Songwriting.
