What will we wake up to, tomorrow?
Can the sun bear to shine on a new, fresh sorrow?
Where will be hurting?
Who will be crying?
What breed of hate will make sense of the dying?
Not in our name, our leaders will say
Not in our book, this is not what we pray
Not what we asked for, not what we teach
Not our brand of politics, this is not what we preach.
In part, they’ll be right,
We didn’t bear arms
We didn’t kill and we didn’t harm.
But are we all tolerant?
Do we do the right thing?
Do we respect all the differences each of us brings?
Look back at yourself, when you were young
Look outward with child’s eyes on all that you’ve done
All that you’ve tweeted, all that you’ve said
Would you see where you could’ve been kinder instead?
We all have an imprint of what’s gone before
No-one is perfect, we all have our flaws
We all think some thoughts of which we aren’t proud
The thing is to fight them, don’t say them out loud
Don’t be complicit with hate and division
Don’t willingly join in with hurtful derision
Don’t use free speech as a blanket excuse
What you class as banter might well be abuse
Let’s try to be calmer, to change the direction
Let’s listen, let’s talk more, let’s show more affection
Change our behaviour, shift our own attitude
Try harder than offering just one more new platitude
Look to tomorrow to make a fresh start
And accepts, to bring change, we must all play our part.