What if you had talked to him?
Asked him how he felt
Would you still be here in this white-washed room
Beside the bed that you are knelt.

Would it have made a difference?
Would your hands still be black from the cold, grave dirt?
A simple “hello,” smile, wave
A kind gesture wouldn’t have hurt

Maybe he needed a friend.
Someone he could have told
All his hopes, dreams, fears to
You take his bloody hands-cold.

How could a man who believed in love
A man who went to church,
Done such an unspeakable thing?
The answer for this you desperately search.

What if you had just shown a little kindness?
You walked past him at the end of everyday day
Little did you know of his pain
An invisible hurting that he would never get to say.

He fought with the others
Said war was all bad
Took a gun and some bullets
His lawyer claims he was mad

And maybe he will tell you
What went on in his head
Why he pulled the trigger
And why twelve people now lay dead.

They had all fought overseas.
Against a villainous bad guy
Now they were safe at home
But it was here that they would die.

Now you have to tell the families
Of whom the breath of life is gone
So many tears pour down their cheeks
They say each day is a new day, and here is dawn

How can a single man
So crazed, so mad at the world
How can such a man cause so much grief
Whose anger he had hurled.

You shiver when you think
Of all the death seen in his eyes
You could have stopped it! You say
Stopped this man the world now does despise

Could you have stopped it?
Could you have done anything?
Could you have saved them from their fate?
And made this nightmare just a bad dream?

You think and watch and hope and wait
Innocence killed by some petty tiff
The newspapers will talk tomorrow, asking, asking
What it? What if? What it? What if?