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Did you ever stop and think how the world would be if some folks had turned out differently?

By

Jackie French Koller

For instance, what if Ben Franklin never tried to fly a kite,

or Shakespeare never

tried to write?

What if Einstein never used his brain,

or the Wright brothers never tried to fly a plane?

What if Lincoln never tried to free the slaves,

or Susan B. Anthony was afraid to make waves?

What if Alexander Graham Bell was content to just yell?

What if Ford never tried to make a car,

or Walt Disney never wished upon a star?

What if Beethoven never tried to play?

What if Mother Teresa turned away?

What if Babe Ruth was afraid to swing a bat?

What if Columbus accepted that the world was flat?

What if Luciano Pavarotti never tried to sing?

What if dreams were enough for Martin Luther King?

What if Jim Thorpe never entered the race,

or Baryshnikov let another dance in his place?

What if Michelangelo thought he wasn't good enough,

or John Glenn feared he didn't have the right stuff?

What if all the folks who've changed the world had lived and died and never tried?

What if you had a dream

And you held it inside...

And never tried?

WHAT IF... originally published in Cobblestone magazine.

"What Is History?," January 1990. Copyright 1990 Cobblestone

Publishing. Used by permission.

www.cobblestonepub.com

AFTERWORD

Unfortunately, I wrote WHAT IF... very early in my writing career. I was so eager for publishing credits that I sold "all rights" to the Cobblestone Magazine, which means that my poem no longer be-longs to me and I can never publish it anywhere else, even in an-other form or language, even if Cobblestone never uses it again. They did allow me to publish it here for the free use of my readers, but my advice to writers and aspiring writers would be NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES sell all rights.