Oh 2024, Please Be Kinder

[Ferdinand Mabalane]

Oh 2024, Please be Kinder!
Help erase away old heartaches
Help us keep lessons from our mistakes.
As the final curtain falls over this year
Signalling the end of yet another brutal year
A new dawn now beckons, or does it?

Out with the old, in with the new.
Our hopes for a new beginning,
In anticipation of the change of fortunes,
For you shall cast away the bad past,
So we can embrace the new you with trust.

We make a wish on you, our New Star
Simple as you seem, with hidden surprises.
There’s no limit to a wish, we’ve been here before,
Bruised and confused by years of disappointments,
Reduced to eternal optimists and time delinquents


We pray for strength to take us through each toil,
We pray for the resilience to help us through each setback.
We pray for the courage to keep us going and not regress.
Even when it seems hard, there can be no time to regret it.

As the 2023 midnight hour chimes,
May it signal new beginnings and fresh start,
Renewed commitment to succeed where we failed
May each wish made on this hour, see the light of day
To make 2024 just a little kinder, as she should