Why run aground on life’s little shallows?

Dying prematurely to meet a lousy deadline.

It’s all a gift and when I go to the gallows

Will I, hand on heart, say I read that sign

Bent by the roadside all the life down?

Did I for a moment take my eyes off the road?

Pull over for a breather, see the leaves turn brown?

Break my routine, watch the elements corrode

Everything around me that was once pristine?

Did I down tools for just long enough

To peer through the gloaming at the fading green?

See diamonds gleaming in the rough?