I Met You (Much Too Late)

I would have loved you,
but I did not know you then.
I could have kissed your scabby knees
and licked ice cream from your chin.
I might have pinched your puppy-fat
and pulled your pigtails, just in fun;
yet, if I had been first to make you cry,
I may have prevented worse pain to come.
If only I had been aware
that you were only streets away,
I would have saddled up my imaginary horse
and ridden to save the day.
But I met you much too late,
when the damage was already done
and fell in love with 'might have been',
instead of what you had become.