sometimes

sometimes i wonder

what would have happened

to famous people if their careers

hadn't worked out the way they'd wanted

if they hadn't become famous

what would they be doing now?

would Bruce Springsteen be teaching

guitar and song-writing at a community college

and then playing once or twice a month at

a bar, singing covers and occasionally

adding in one of the songs he'd created

would brad pitt be selling real estate

driving people around the hills of santa monica

talking to them about the time he tried to become

an actor, and how he'd just missed out on that role

with X and Y in that movie Z

would bono own a coffee shop in ireland

showing up early to prepare for the day and

unlocking the door and raising the shutters

would steve young be in finance,

perhaps working as a mortgage broker,

if his father hadn't encouraged him, when

Steve had wanted to quit, to

keep practicing

as someone serves me at a bar

or as i watch a barista in a coffee shop

or as I talk with someone in some occupation

sometimes i wonder what were their dreams,

what were their hopes, and who could they

have been, how famous could they

have been, if fate had only

worked out for them

sometimes i think to myself

that this person right here, right now,

the one delivering my amazon package,

or passing me a coffee, or cooking my meal,

or checking my meter to make sure it isn't leaking,

sometimes i think to myself, in some other alternate

universe, this person is the movie star, the rock star,

the sports star, the one whose dreams

came true