Said darling daughter unto me:
“oh Dad, how funny it would be
If you had gone to Mexico
A score or so of years ago.
Had not some whimsey changed your plan
I might have been a Mexican.
With lissome form and raven hair,
Instead of being fat and fair.
“Or if you’d sailed the Southern Seas
And mated with a Japanese
I might have been a squatty girl
With never golden locks to curl,
Who flirted with a painted fan,
And tinkled on a samisan,
And maybe slept upon a mat –
I’m very glad I don’t do that.
“When I consider the romance
Of all your youth of change and chance
I might, I fancy, just as well
Have bloomed a bold Tahitian belle,
Or have been born . . . but there – ah no!
I draw the line – and Esquimeaux.
It scares me stiff to think of what
I might have been – thank God! I’m not.”
Said I: “my dear, don’t be absurd,
Since everything that has occurred,
Through seeming fickle in your eyes,
Could not a jot be otherwise.
For in this casual cosmic biz
The world can be but what it is;
And nobody can dare deny
Part of this world is you and I.
Or call it fate or destiny
No other issue could there be.
Though half the world I’ve wandered through
Cause and effect have linked us two.
Aye, all the aeons of the past
Conspired to bring us here at last,
And all I ever chanced to do
Inevitably led to you.
To you, to make you what you are,
A maiden in a Morris car,
IN Harris tweeds, an airedale too,
But Anglo-Saxon through and through.
And all the good and ill I’ve done
In every land beneath the sun
Magnificently led to this –
A country cottage and – your kiss.”
(Robert William Service)
More Poetry from Robert William Service:
Robert William Service Poems based on Topics: God, World, Fairness, Hair, Fathers, Past, Romantic Love, Kiss, Cars, Change, Countries- Fighting Mac (Robert William Service Poems)
- If You Had The Choice Of Two Women To Wed (Robert William Service Poems)
- (The sunshine seeks my little room) (Robert William Service Poems)
- Eyrie (Robert William Service Poems)
- Navels (Robert William Service Poems)
- The Little Piou-Piou (Robert William Service Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: God Poems, World Poems, Fairness Poems, Past Poems, Fathers Poems, Hair Poems, Change Poems, Kiss Poems, Romantic Love Poems, Countries Poems, Cars PoemsBased on Keywords: scares, morris, mated, biz, inevitably, aeons, lissome, anglo-saxon, conspired, harris, mexican