Last Minute Save Poem by Gary Diamond

Took us many years to remember to reuse shopping bags, didn't it?
Like the last minute save a keeper makes to keep a clean sheet.
Don't start telling me I'm lazy.
We're all lazy in our fashion.

Last ditch attempts and famous last words
Are all staple favourites of our culture.
When someone was caught short,
Or caught abusing the press, provoked and wasted.
It's all good family fun.

I love the pleas of the fading and dismal celebrities.
Going on ready-made shows to bolster flagging careers.
Getting another belated week or two in the spotlight
Cashing in
Then back to obscurity for them.

How many times have you dropped and caught a loose plate
Only to fumble it and turn it into splinters and shards regardless.
Sometimes you save a falling child as if by sixth sense.
Other times you're so oblivious you nearly end up
Under the wheels of a tanker.

It's best to leave certain choices until the latest.
Sometimes laying on a plan early or seed planting wrongly
Will turn the world against you
Or your best ideas will be readily stolen.
The gut instinct is what tells us to hold back, make way.
To keep what seems essential tucked away for day.

Don't be calling me lazy.
I'd been planning this all along.
I just wanted to make it
Look as if I was lost and blitherly.
To fool you.

Did it work?
You tell me.