A Major Consolation in A Minor Accident

It’s the minor accidents, I note,

That protect us from the major ones,

I picked up this truth only today

Just about two hours after dawn.

I was working on a poem

When I heard a glass drop on the counter,

I soon came to know it was broken

But for me it became a prompter.

It is true it was a special glass

The last of four I had bought,

Not one of them was broken by me

And as such I should have become distraught.

But in it I saw a consolation

In that this was something minor,

That was my prompter throughout the day

To try to avoid something major.

Had that minor accident not happened

I might not have geared up to be careful

But from the moment that it happened

My guard was up in full.

This also occurs with near misses

When we are driving on the road,

It often takes just about one narrow escape

To keep us from being too bold.

I am glad the offender was not cut

By the glass that he or she dropped

Although of my four special glasses that remain

The number now stands at nought.

Stewart Russell © March 2020