I could have been

I could have been a lion tamer
That man in the tall silk hat
I could have been a tightrope walker
Or a clown or an acrobat

But I didn’t run away to the circus
Even though I’m fond of cats

I could have been a surgeon
Or a doctor or a nurse
I might have made folk better
Or I might have made them worse

Then I could have been an undertaker
And driven a big black hearse

I could have been a carpenter
Or a plumber, or his mate
A sparky or a brickie
Or a roofer laying slate

But they sent me to a grammar school
Where they taught me historical dates

I could have been a teacher
A professor or a don
And spent my life in flowing gowns
Singing my alma mater song

But I might not have been that clever
And could have got the words all wrong

So I ended up as this version of me
Going along with life’s easy flow
Always wondering what I might have done
If I’d been much braver and had a go

I could have been a lion tamer
I’m terribly fond of cats, you know

There are so many paths we could take in life and we never know what the outcome would have been.