I might even have dipped my toes
In the water of surfing
if I’d just stopped working sooner
left more time to get to Knock airport
if I’d chosen the main road instead of the back road
if I had been travelling slower
even though the road was dry
if the farmer had trimmed the hedge
on the blind bend
if the tractor was not pulling a wide trailer
if it hadn’t rained two days before
if the drain under the road wasn’t blocked
if I hadn’t braked just where
the water flowed across the road
if the van hadn’t skidded on the slick
I wouldn’t have worn this splint
for twenty-five years
I might not have done some teaching
I might not have become a draughtsman
I might not have moved back to England
I wouldn’t have opened that restaurant
joined choirs, made frozen yoghurt
made this house out of a stable
lived this life beyond the bend…
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Poetics invites us to write about pivotal moments in our lives…