'If I'd Known It Then' poem by Malvika Mishra

'If I'd Known It Then.'

When midnight dawns and I lie in my bed,

When all is quiet, safe yet dark,

I travel to places near and far

But perhaps my favourite is a land called 'The Past',

Where there are no deer, no ponds, no trees,

Many and much has been lost here, for here it floods memories.

And as I swim my way through the past, I wish I'd known it Then

That a merry day too shall face an end,

For Fate and Time will take it away

That later, I'll wish but every day

'If I'd known it Then ….'

And I think how selfish of Time it is,

For it keeps what is gone, all to itself

And what is to come, it refuses to tell

And yet how generous of Time it is,

To give us what we have Now, to provide us with what we have in hand,

We can choose to make it a mere 'now' or decide to make it grand.

And this I shall not forget,

So, for now, I'll be happy, I'll smile,

I'll take a step down a road that is long a hundred miles,

For I know, I'll wish I'd been happier Now,

When I'm on my last step and in pain,

But, alas, I can not do that now; for now, I wish I'd known it then.

To whosoever is reading this,

This poem is incomplete; I did all that I could do,

But although I poured my heart out, there's not much a poem can hold true…

Malvika Mishra, 9F,  Ahlcon Public School