The Queen's Speech

One another? I am born the same year you are born - 1926
And so much has happened and yet, so little - Fiddlesticks!
I am an immigrant. I shall always be an immigrant.
I walk like an immigrant. I talk like an immigrant.
I am an immigrant from my tip to my toe.

This word Immigrant, you know how it was born?
It emerged from the word Migrate. Migrate.
First prescribed as a description of what birds do.
And how free are they? I am an immigrant like the birds.

See. A boy said to me that his zaidy said to him,
Reach of the top of the tree and you get to the first branch.
But reach for the stars and you get to the top of the tree.
So, here is Britain, this beautiful earth, and here is the sky
And here are the stars.

What if for one moment in one day we reach for the stars?
What if you uncurl your heart as we uncurl ours
And spread your arms open wide as we spread ours?
What if for one moment in one time on one day
We reach out to all and beyond and say.
With the power to draw in the warmth of the sun,
Let it be. Let them come. Let it be. Let them come.

Let them come with their baklava, their coffee and teas.
Like Moses let us lead. Let us all lead.
Let them bring their hymns and their prayer beads.
Let them wear the saints in gold around their necks.
Let them bring their grief and their good, their kismet.
Let them bring their stories and their laughter.
Speak of Christmas and Ramadan and Hanukkah.
Let them ring their church bells, let their muezzin call.

Let the cacophony ring true and ring through to us all.
Let it be. Let them come. Let it be. Let them come.

Let them throw down their seeds and let freedom flower.
Let them speak their own language as we speak ours,
So that they might learn the language of tone and trust,
The blessed language of the body and the face - the language of us.
The language of listening. Because these things speak more
Than the clumsiness of words. Let them come, I implore.
Let them exchange our customs and let it be customary to exchange.
Let them come like the beautiful life-giving rain.
I shall wear the yarmulke, they shall wear the cloth.
I shall wear the talit, let them wear the cross.
From the churches, the mosques, the synagogues,
Let them come in the name of their gods.

Let them come. It is you that visited them. You.
For whom the sun would never set.
Let us decolonise our minds: Live free, yet, never forget.
You who scoured the world (for who?) like a dragnet plunging
Into the waves catching all and sundry lunging into slaves.
It was you who counted the bounty and threw the rest overboard.
Ruling the waves indeed by gun by God by sword.

These British cities thrive today on the cash flow from then.
Then let's address the current, the strong strong current, then.
Lest we stand, as we are, with hands frozen to the gun
On the beaches, in this code red autumnal sun:
Like a kingdom stunned.
Let the knots of history come undone.

Lest we stand, as we are, with hands frozen to the gun
On the beaches, in this code red autumnal sun:
Like a kingdom stunned.
Let the knots of history come undone.
Let your people finish what your people begun.
Let us open our arms as they did - Let them come.