What if

What if I'd never been born, never scorned, What if there were a blank stage, unadorned, What if I were a rose without a thorn, An unbruised, free soul, untouched, untorn, No joys or pains to tangle in my head, An utter silence where no voice was led. What if no dawn or dusk I had known, No roots, no ground, no seeds were sown, Just endless calm, no fear or fight, A deep sleep, a boundless night, Where knowledge rests, freely, and unplanned Neither blessed, nor cursed and damned.