Corporate Opportunity

The chance to spend life totting up
Gross income and expenses,
Forbidden to express a view
That might disturb consensus;

To turn your mind and soul-strength to
Some widget-maker's profit;
To not just sip the hireling's cup
But force yourself to quaff it;

To regulate your thinking by
The figures on a spread-sheet;
To dread a drooping graph worse than
A syphilitic bedsheet;

To blindly follow routines that
Top management arranges,
And while you parrot policy,
Anticipate its changes;

To bootlick for the CEO,
Sling flattery in dollops;
To summon up a toady's smile
To please the in-house trollops;

To cringe in paralytic fear
Before a boss's swagger;
To know your back's a target for
The cold, collegial dagger;

To tune your speech to market trends,
Endure an ad-man's raving;
To finish every task, and then
Despite your years of slaving,

To wonder if some MBA,
To make the place efficient,
Will classify you obsolete,
Redundant, or deficient.

© Joseph S. Salemi

"Corporate Opportunity" previously appeared in Masquerade, Pivot Press, 2005.