In A Split Second

 

 

In a split second

Your life can change,

A single unguarded moment

Everything rearranged.

 

Happened to me:

Not once but twice,

And the discomfort associated

I tell you is not nice.

 

August 18, 2019,

At King George Park,

Everything was going well

Then trouble start.

 

 

Called on to pray

I ran to the bandstand,

Slid across the smooth floor

And suddenly, blam!

 

A ruptured tendon

And I was laid up for days,

Therein was the first split second

That changed my ways.

 

May 6, 2025,

Yes, only yesterday,

Emerging from a change of mind-

What else can I say?

 

 

Stepped in the laundry

On some wet tiles,

Up-side-down I cat-spraddled,

Don’t you dare smile!

 

A very painful ankle

Is what I duly sustained

Add to that a swollen knee

And excruciating pain.

 

Two different split seconds

That changed my life

And in ways I did not plan for;

Oh, what strife!

 

 

It was the left leg before

Now it is the right,

Don’t tempt Mighty Gravity,

You will lose the fight.

 

I thank God

That nothing is broken,

Just a painful knee and ankle

And both still swollen.

 

Don’t you dare smirk

Because it happened to me

For you surely know as well as I do,

It can happen to anybody.

 

Please my friend,

Do take especial care

For accidents least expected,

Can happen anywhere.

 

 

In a split second

Your life can be changed

And your best laid out plans

Can be rearranged.

 

Stewart Russell © May 7, 2025