The Ifs Of My Life Poem by Trevor Toews

You know how the branches of a tree
Split and split again,
Until these thousand passages terminate in leaves,
Not one of them the same.
Start at the root and choose a route,
And when you come to a leaf, then write my name.

And take note that it's only a single leaf at the end.

That's me,
Living in the sunshine,
Fluttering in the wind,
Soaking in the rain,
And accompanied by the thousand whispering leaves
I might have been.

If I had stopped the other day, instead of running.
If I had gone last year, instead of staying.
If I had asked, if I had turned.
Or hadn't fallen short, or foregone praying,
Or given my reply in haste
Ah! The path I took, the things I learned
While every other option went to waste.

All are gone now, there remain
Only the choices in the future
To split and split again.

Don't be too narrow minded when evaluating me
Consider all the other branches of my tree.