Lucky

It should have happened

Might have

Had to

Did happen, perhaps

At just the right time

Right time, but different place

After it made no difference

Before anyone cared

I got to live because

My father’s scored high on an aptitude test

Ripped up his tailgunner’s orders

Mother liked his smile

Bobby lived because

Sirhan Sirhan went to the movies

Stubbed his toe at a laundromat

Hated the smell of fish

Never a Thousand Year Reich because

Schicklgruber-Hitler keeps his name

Gains acceptance to the Art Academy, wins fame

Falls in love, her dog’s lame

The dinosaurs survive because

A comet clips the K-T meteorite

It misses Yucatan

Blast Mars

And there’s no homo sapiens

No Pioneer spacecraft invited aliens

No AIs

No chance bye-byes

This manuscript vanishes before it appears