Steven Kent

What Might Have Been

We didn't matter all that much to Dad;
Like many other deeply distant men,
He never knew the love he could have had.

The lock upon his soul was ironclad,
Emotion always just beyond his ken.
We didn't matter all that much to Dad.

The distance was enough to drive us mad
About the time we each hit nine or ten;
He never knew the love he could have had.

Domestic life to him was more a fad,
A dated tie to try on in the den.
We didn't matter all that much to Dad.

No words of fellow feeling did he add
When present for a weekend now and then.
He never knew the love he could have had,

And now he's gone. I wonder: Was he sad?
Or would he choose the life he lived again?
We didn't matter all that much to Dad;
He never knew the love he could have had.

Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside (www.kentburnside.com). His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, The Hypertexts, Light Poetry Magazine, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.