Could Have Been.(Poem)

 
COULD HAVE BEEN 
 
   Goliath was big but he could have been littler, 
   Mickey Mouse could have been Mortimer Mouse, 
   Chamberlain could have said bollocks to Hitler, 
   Christ could have been a success as a victualler, 
   Coleridge could have just stayed in the house. 
 
      Could have been, should have been, probably would have been, 
      Texts are corrupt and their meanings obscure, 
      Credible, viable, rarely reliable; 
      All we can say is that nothing's for sure. 
 
   Ulysses might have got lost in his wandering, 
   Ulysses Grant might have stayed off the booze, 
   Wittgenstein might have got by with less pondering, 
   Heliogabalus might have stopped ...