(The real nursery rhyme goes; <br /> How many miles to Babylon? <br /> Three score and ten. <br /> Can I get there by candlelight? <br /> Yes. There and back again.) <br /> <br />How many miles to Babylon? <br />The way is long and harsh, my son, <br />The road is winding, the going rough, <br />For many there is no return. <br /> <br />How many miles to Babylon? <br />As many as they let you go, <br />It is an ancient, alien land <br />What you'll meet there, who can know. <br /> <br />How many miles to Babylon? <br />Too many miles in a distant land <br />Where bombs and havoc rule the day <br />And bloodied limbs lie in the sand. <br /> <br />How many miles to Babylon? <br />The dead in heaps await their biers. <br />Against a tapestry of fire, <br />The rivers run with red- blood tears. <br /> <br />How many miles to Babylon? <br />Six by seven by three, <br />Only in your winding sheet <br />Will you come home to me.<br /><br />Margery Rehman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-many-miles-to-babylon/
