If only:
You overslept that day.
The phone rang and instead you were called away.

Or
You decided to do something else that day.
Take a hike. Ride a bike.
See a movie.  Visit your sister in New Jersey.

Or
Your car failed.
The right tire went flat.
You forgot your wallet and had to go back.

Or
The instructor called in sick.

Or
It wasn’t a cloudless beautiful day.

Or
That damned small little airplane didn’t break.

If only, If only, If only, If only, If only
You were still here today.
 
© Samuel A Simon
2018

​A day just like today.
The second day of May.
Crisp and cold with a bright morning sky.
Laying asleep on blades of grass
near smoldering embers in ash of last night's fire.
Not sure if my eyes will ever open again, too tired.
Laying just away from the stench of the dead and those about to die.
A shove on my shoulder and then sounds of the motors. 
Get up! Get up!  My friend shouted.
The 82nd Airborne is here!
It was a day just like today.
Crisp and cold with a bright morning sky.
The second day of May, 1945.
Camp Woebbelin, near Ludwigslust, Germany.