I think the people who come up with these prompts (assignments) have severe bipolar disorder. Just three days ago, I was to write a poem about being sad. Today, I am to write a poem of gifts and joy. What would I give myself, if I could have anything? What would I give someone else?

***

Were they real?
The ones who’ve gone before.

My gift takes me back into their world,
a grandmother gone with child
103 years ago
leaving two daughters with a coal miner,
then a widower – neither did I ever meet.
Another mother, now 107 years dead.

I could meet my grandparents and that
would make me be a better person. Death
removes what time eternal unites.

I will go back to some beginning.
There my gift to my loving
family living,
is a better me.
Time drops its barrier
as I undo all harm that I have ever done
– to anyone.

All my sins forgiven,
guilt of error gone.
My omissions I’d repair – and do what
I’d once not dare.
A thorn I’d become,
in the side of all the wrong,
when I had then
looked the other way.

The self I’d give to the world would be
a better, better me.
A perfect man in time and space,
who mended his every mistake.
Reality?
Be damned!

Now you can love me as you never did before,
I am a better person who is not
the man you knew,
but one I created for you.

My scars are gone,
my tears are dry,
how can I with you cry.
I can’t relate
to you my world, since I am now
so great.

With no regrets,
what lessons have I learned?
I’d fix this world, I really would.
But then,
in the end,
who would I be now?

© Bill Reynolds, 4/7/2019

Live in the now but look into your past to discover who you are.
Mine the gaps for secrets are hidden there.