Dilemma of Assistance

To clean up a mess or just walk around
Is often the spot in which I am found.
Nobody can blame me for the snafu,
But I wonder if something I could do.

Too late to prevent what has happened here;
No sense to protest the path is not clear.
If I would go as I had intended,
Then the problem, it seems, must be mended.

But I could choose to divert another way
And use the muss to excuse my delay.
I was not invited to the disaster
And the detour around might be faster.

Why feel such guilt where no part I partook,
Or where perhaps my advice they forsook?
To cast a rope to those caught in chagrin
Is to risk the same fate and get pulled in.

Am I so noble to bear others’ danger
And to swap my comfort with a stranger?
Or so in need of praise to my glory
To rush to play hero in the story?

Must one accept responsibility
To respond because of ability?
Do I mistake Pride for proper Duty,
Or turn cheek for a kick in the booty?

Do you ask for my help free of all blame
When ‘til now you left me out of the game?
Or on the sidelines may I yet remain
And from all your problems simply abstain?