Snap Decisions Poem by Roger Hudson

Summer afternoon.
Lazily
Relaxing in the sun
On bank of Highgate Pond
Idly watching children
Splash in the water.
Suddenly young girl,
Walking carefully out from the shore
In pale brown swimsuit
Turns
Waves to unseeing mum
Slips
Goes under
All of her.
Re-appears
Tries to find footing
Fails
Head goes under
again
Without a sound.
Immediately
Onto your feet
As her head
Appears
Disappears
Again.
Walk quickly into water
Pull her out.
Other people have looked astounded
What is this man doing walking into the water
With his clothes and shoes on?
Chatting mother alerted
Artificial respiration
Coughs splutters
She is OK.
Thanks, gratitude.
"How easily it happens."
"I only took my eyes off her for a moment."
Says the mother.
Says a stranger
"They should put up a sign
The shallow first few feet
Turn to a steep drop
Into deep water.
They should put up a sign."
While I
Ring out my soaking trousers
To walk home with my own family
In wet clothes
And squelchy shoes.

Another sunny day
Walking along busy Saturday market street
Little black toddler
Smartly dressed in her best party clothes
Leaves her mum chatting to her friend
At shop window
Walks across pavement in front of me
Straight between two parked cars
Towards the road
And the zooming traffic.
Without thinking
I grab her and guide her back
To her mother.
"You naughty girl.
I only took my eyes off her for a second."
Not true but,
Late for an appointment,
I don't argue
And continue walking.

If I can react
That spontaneously
And accurately
To save two lives,
Why do decisions on more mundane and routine matters
Prove so difficult to make
And to get right?

Compare the other times
When doing what seems right
Saying the first thing that comes into your head
Is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Causes immense offence
Destroys relationships.

Yet delaying
To think over
What is the best course?
May mean an opportunity missed,
A contact not made,
A rift not mended.

How does one tell?

Or is the lesson
How easy death comes
When you least expect it
And don't want it.
How difficult
When you do.