What If Jack

by Gene Ervine

What if Jack Kerouac didn't 

Don sunglasses,

Wear a gray sweatshirt,

Or drink too much wine?

What if he was Irish?

Was red haired?

And a priest of a different religion?

There isn't enough here

To worry about really.

But it would've  been a different

Poem, a different song,

A different novel 

It may have meant something different

Like a wee cow nosing the day's food

Out of a tiny pasture smelling of smoldering peat

Clearly he would have walked

Different trails, in different mountains and

Rocky coasts and seen different vistas

Maybe no more questing, but maybe, just maybe

A lingering blessing.