napowrimo-april-11th-didn't choose

What if!


I chose to get on that plane
I didn't choose to stay
Discover what would happen
Had you returned.
Much later I found out
You did not mean to leave
Just scare me a little
When you took off.
Teach me a lesson
Of how much I would miss you.
Make me reconsider
Moving on.
Guess it backfired
Your driving off
Leaving me stranded...
Did it lead to your early grave?
Had you found me on your return
Would we have patched things up?
At least have stayed friends?
Would you have stayed close?
Not moved overseas?
Not slipped in that bath?
Not broke your neck?
Had I answered your letter
Not chickened out
Would I have been strong enough
To be on my own
Yet have you part of our lives?
My life turned out ok
Apart from this one thing
That I regret to this day
Your sons would have loved
To have you in theirs.
Would you still have died
So young
If harder we had tried?

© Ingeborg Apfelbaum. April 2010

RWP member Angie Werren invites us to write about the choice we didn’t make:
Everyday we make choices. Some are small: English breakfast or Lipton? the highway or back roads? Some are more significant: convertible or mini-van? farmhouse or condo?
Some choices lead us straight into the life we’re living, but for this poem, think about one of the things in your life you didn’t choose.
Be concrete. Pick an object — something tangible* — and write your poem directly to it, as if you were writing it a personal letter. Explain why you didn’t choose it. What could things have been like if you had? Talk about what your life has become without it. See where the “confession” takes you.
*As an alternative, dig a little deeper and write your poem to a person you left behind