In computer science, conditional constructs are sometimes referred to as “If-Then-Else” statements: if a condition is met, then an action is performed; if the condition is not met, then an alternate action is executed.
What if I were
to begin
this poem with a declarative?
What if I wrote
it all
in a single sentence?
What if I did not
repeat
the interrogative what if ?
What if these lines
were not
broken into tercets
or I had stopped
with my
very first stanza
or wrote on for
another
twenty or thirty more?
What if someone
very else
wrote these lines of mine?
How then would I
measure
the magnitude of wonder
the value of these
ideas
or fathom affliction?
We only have what
we have
not what we do not
There are no what-ifs
whatsoever
while they are also infinite
each and every
concrete
one satisfied in a singular
Then: both a past
implied
and a consequent future.