Your life already exists. Would you like to replace it?
Anthony J. Langford
You know you’ve wanted to start again.
At some point
Gain a better footing
At the beginning of the race
Choose another sentence
Redraft please
Liquid paper backspace.
Sure everyone makes mistakes
If only you could select which ones
Those tarnished words
Hasty judgements
And deliberate actions
That seemed right at the time
Where did it go so wrong?
If it were possible to start over
Would you…?
You are still the same person after all,
If only we could be someone else
At select moments
To experience an alternate mindset
A separate branch of the tree
Another skin, another sex
When posed with…
To be or not to be
You can answer
In the affirmative.
Sure, we’re all remarkable
In our own way
But you know you have done better.
(You can do better).
Then, taking what you’ve learnt,
How might it change you?
To have understood another
In ways no one else could
To have savoured their thoughts
To have suffered their anguish
And revelled in their happiness
To yearn with their need
To be understood
Like you want to be.
Think of the possibilities
Of that Exquisite Information
How might your Empathy
Be able to Inspire?
Unless of course
You’re already altered by this experience
As the Universe dictates
Much to your surprise
Unable to ever fully return
To You.
And all that’s left
Is the horrible realisation
That you’d prefer to be the Other.
(See Title and Click Yes.)
After this post, the poem was included in the collection, Caged Without Walls
My Books