Country City Mouse
Read Write Poem's NaPoWriMo #11 The Thing You Didn't Choose
Country City Mouse
If only,
if only you had chosen me
if only...
you would not
end each day with dirt under your nails
you would not
spend precious hours commuting to your life
you would not
have to sweep the yard back out of the kitchen everyday
you would have
enough time for art, for poetry, for music
for unhurried creation and uninterrupted appreciation
If only you had chosen me,
had stayed on the coast in the capital...
If only!
All of that might be true
if only I had chosen you.
I would wear heels and suits
instead of slippers and sweats.
I'd plant in neat balcony pots
instead of sprawling yard plots.
With you, though, I would not
live in the harmony of seasonal time,
appreciating super starry nights
and putting up fruit in its prime.
If only I had chosen you,
would I value you? Or -
would I ache for this
the way I ache for you now?
You might have led me around the world
following fulfilling work,
but you would never have given me these
children, who are products of this place.
You would never have shown me this path.
I did not choose you. I chose this, and
I am finished with 'if only'
for now...
Notes: I like where this poem took me. It is something that rolls around in my head quite a lot now as I stand at another decision-required intersection. I would like to keep working on the style in the second half of the poem, bringing in more rhyme and meter to differentiate it from the voice of the first half of the poem. We'll see.
Country City Mouse
If only,
if only you had chosen me
if only...
you would not
end each day with dirt under your nails
you would not
spend precious hours commuting to your life
you would not
have to sweep the yard back out of the kitchen everyday
you would have
enough time for art, for poetry, for music
for unhurried creation and uninterrupted appreciation
If only you had chosen me,
had stayed on the coast in the capital...
If only!
All of that might be true
if only I had chosen you.
I would wear heels and suits
instead of slippers and sweats.
I'd plant in neat balcony pots
instead of sprawling yard plots.
With you, though, I would not
live in the harmony of seasonal time,
appreciating super starry nights
and putting up fruit in its prime.
If only I had chosen you,
would I value you? Or -
would I ache for this
the way I ache for you now?
You might have led me around the world
following fulfilling work,
but you would never have given me these
children, who are products of this place.
You would never have shown me this path.
I did not choose you. I chose this, and
I am finished with 'if only'
for now...
Notes: I like where this poem took me. It is something that rolls around in my head quite a lot now as I stand at another decision-required intersection. I would like to keep working on the style in the second half of the poem, bringing in more rhyme and meter to differentiate it from the voice of the first half of the poem. We'll see.
It's always fun to speculate on the "path not taken". Well done.
ReplyDeleteSprawling yard sounds good to me.Enjoyed this poem a lot!
ReplyDeleteSo eloquently put. I like where this comes from, and where it goes. I know where this is coming from, both literally and figuratively.
ReplyDeleteWe all have to make choices in life and though some may seem easy at the time, they often leave us wondering later... whispering of what might have been...