Tardy

A Punctuality Poem

Photo by Tejas Prajapati from Pexels

There is one thing that I must accept:
I will always be late
It seeps into every fibre of my life,
This cruel twist of fate

I try to leave early
but still get waylaid
My boss doesn’t understand
How will I ever get paid?

I’ve always been taught
The value of punctuality
What society demands
Doesn’t live in my reality

If time is a river,
then my shoes are concrete
Or if it’s a freefall,
I never land on my feet

Alarm bells ring,
Chiding my inevitable delay
Each one that goes off
Rattles my heart like a child at play

Tomorrow never comes
but I’m never caught up
Never outside the shadow of the overdue
But I’ve never thought what

would happen if maybe, one day,
I could be on time.