I play the game of what-if
Trying to backtrack
Trying to unweave
The paths that have gotten
Me were I am today
Even going as far as diving
Into my ancestors’ paths
Wondering how things
Could have ended up differently
Would I have been someone
Other than this person
I see staring back at me
maybe I would have been a person
Who has her life together
Living up to her full potential
Would it have even truly mattered?
I remember a wild teen
darting down each path
no matter the obvious
warning signs, No thoughts
of how those one lane roads
may have changed everything
Some better not taken
Now in hindsight
Wishing I could go back
to fix the glaring mistakes
Knowing and feeling
As I do now
this older mature self
Wishing I could click
my Nike tennis shoes together
Sending me to the past
to give my younger self
Much needed advice
Heeding the dangers
Of cause and effect
Knowing the game
of what-if leaves
me broken in my loss
and guilt, a scab
I just can’t leave alone
One pointer I’d give
my younger headstrong self
Though I doubt I’d have listened
Pushing away all good advice
and running foolishly headlong
into blissful ignorance
Not ever regarding
Cause and effect