If I Were You

Advice isn't always easy to give, sometimes we don't quite mean what we say and sometimes we don't quite say what we mean. This is 'If I Were You'

‘If I were you’,

They say to me,

‘I wouldn’t sit there,

In that tree.’

Yes you would,

It’s plain to see,

If you were I,

And I still me,

We would both,

Be in the tree.

You would not be,

There below,

To tell me,

Where I ought not go.

If you were I,

And I were thee,

You would still be,

In the tree.

But I would be there,

Down below,

To tell thee where thou,

Ought not go.

And you would sit,

Where I am now,

Wondering,

Quite why and how,

One below,

Assumes as me,

They would not want,

To climb the tree.

I think, therefore,

For both of us,

You should rephrase,

Your sentence thus:

‘If you were me,

You would not be,

Sitting up there,

In a tree.’