If We Could Change Places
If we could change places
And I had your power
You would be sleeping
In a warm, scented bower:
Not wrapped in poor swaddling
But pleasant in silk,
As white and as warming
As your mother's milk.
If we could change places
And I had your power,
We would be watching
From a tall, granite tower:
Not frozen in terror
But safe as the Spring,
The Lord over Herod
But Israel's King.
If we could change places
And I had your power,
I would give it all back to you
With my small store:
For love is the power
To set the world free,
Not cold and conditional
But full endlessly.