What would we have been if born and lived in another age,
Have been in status, standing, and done for a living wage?
Of many social classes, which would we have been within,
And knowing our 21st century selves, dare we such wondering begin?

Would we have laboured long, or had an easy-leaning life,
And would we have had a partner, soulmate, husband, or a wife?
How would we have spent spare time if indeed such time at all,
To what available interests would have felt we had a call?

And what would things have been like without our present day convenience,
What perhaps past limitations with its deference and obedience?
In the absence of the computer chip, our phones and social media.
Would we have been a kinder self, and a little less of all things greedier?

I suspect blind to the future, we would be what birth each provided,
And thereafter would by expected norms be throughout our lives then guided.
Decisions would be based upon the knowledge of the day,
To determine how we lived and how we balanced work and play.

We'd perhaps live within the confines of our hamlet, village, town,
Where amongst our small community would be known, perhaps renown.
And dusk would mean a retreat indoors to talk by candlelight,
Before gas and electric would release us from imprisonment each night.

If we knew then what today we have, I think our lives would feel detached,
Claustrophobic and rather slow, with today's familiar life pace unmatched.
This then gives me a sense, that we are born just when we should,
And live the same in another time, never with such ease quite could.