Roy J Hopwood

Roy J Hopwood Poems

The Best Poem Of Roy J Hopwood

If Only...

If only…

If only I could change a moment in time,
Go back and make things right.
Not that anything was wrong you see,
Yet years on, I’d like to make it right.

What am I babbling on about?
Listen and I’ll explain.

My first ‘love’ was Hilda Meehan,
Not sexual, but platonic you see.
We were the very best of friends.
She lived across the road from me.

We moved to another town and house,
This was one of many moves we made.

Even though we were apart,
And our lives went separate ways.
And though some friends I did see,
I always thought … she isn’t far a ways.

We were leaving for Australia soon,
So I went to say goodbyes.

It is August nineteen sixty three,
It’s a day I’ll never forget.
It is etched inside my mind forever,
It’s a day I’ll always regret.

Took the bus to Stockport,
Then one to Manchester,
And a final one to Middleton,
It was nearly time to see her.

I was walking up Wood Street,
To the place, the town, I used to be.
It was then that it happened
It’s the time I wish to change you see.

It was uphill all the way to Windermere,
I was half way up the hill.
I saw two people passing,
They were going down the hill.

And after they had passed me,
I turned around and looked at them.
They also turned to look at me,
For second … I thought I knew them.

Onwards up to Haweswater,
I knocked on Hilda’s door.
When there was no answer,
I knocked a little more.

It was then that it hit me,
The people down the street.
It was Hilda and her Mother,
It was them I’d come to meet.

So if I could go back in time to change it,
I know what I would do.

Instead of being nervous,
Not knowing what to do.
I’d go and meet and greet them.
That is what I’d do.

It might not make a difference,
And yet I think it would.

If only … I had stopped,
If only … I had spoken,
If only … I’d known for certain.

If only…

If only…

If only…

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