'What might his life have been?'

What might his life have been
Had it been other than it is?
Great and good in the Old Style?
Perhaps, somewhere, his possible self
Is as real as the void in his life is real.

Yes; there must be a possible world, somewhere,
At which his counterpart — his very likeness -
Is a someone of at least some kind.
A someone doing the kind of things
He might have done.
And, with a little holy luck,
He may still do in the future.

So what does his counterpart do?
He does everything…
And I mean everything!
He’s a genius of the best kind -
With ladies and fame at his door.
Even politIcians wait for his word
On all the important issues…

But fuck these modal dreams!
It’s as if they exist (or are actualised)
In perfect ignorance of their dreamer,
His life,
And his sad, concrete world.