Forgotten

Kind friends, come listen
To the tale I’ll tell
Of a bit of heaven
In the midst of hell
Malala Yousafzai
Of Pakistan
She was a target
Of the Taliban

She is our daughter
She is our dream
She is our future
She is fourteen
On her way to school
At the edge of town
They stopped her bus
And they shot her down

Chorus
We will not waste
Our time with tears
We’ll not reward you
With our fears
We will not curse you
We’ll not regret you
We’ll not recall you
We will forget you

What kind of men
Would do these deeds
What kind of hatred
What kind of creeds
See a child
As but a threat
The cost of cowardice
Is we’ll forget Chorus

Bridge
You’ll disappear
Without a trace
From all of history
We will erase
Your name and deeds
All dark and twisted
You are not memory
You’ve not existed

For all the women
For all the girls
Who long for learning
In all the world
She cried out courage
Despite her fear
She stood for Pakistan
She stand up here Chorus

Malala Yousafzai
We will remember
First day of school
Of each September
She is our daughter
She is our dream
She is our future
She is fourteen

October 11, 2012
Olympia, Washington

©2012 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)