Read the Poems

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I search for jobs that are not there

For jobs that now have gone,
And just as weavers lost their trade

Now programmers have none.

The work it lasted thirty years

A life of hope and joy

To make those grand computers earn

Their keep by careful ploy.

The minds that made these engines work

With logic and with skill

Some toiled because they liked the work

Others their bank to fill.

And those of us who know our work

Requires a higher skill,

Will be disheartened as we watch

New trainees make their kill.

Tasks that once required good talent

Are now done: “Near Enough”

Even though the work is sloppy

Their boss laughs: “Cheap Enough!”.

Who cares the work will need to be

Repaired within the month?

Another budget pays that bill

And that will hide our sloth.

It does not matter nowadays

That hidden costs exist.

For short term gain a manager

Can rule with IRON fist.

He knows he cannot take a chance

That truth may soon be told

For with his reckless gains exposed

This job he’ll never hold.

So to preserve for years to come

His status in this firm

He’ll have to sack the specialists

And silence their alarm.

But this will mean that those who come

To replace the brightest

They’ll be selected just because

They were found the blindest.

The boss’s job now seems secure

With whistle blowers gone.

But now with all skill levels dropped

Who will the systems hone.

Short-term gains in one department

Will just like cancers grow.

Unless enlightenment comes soon

Its bankruptcy they’ll know.

The boss looked good for many years

His department did well.

Only by cheating colleagues could

He appear to excel.

The cost was high but not to him

He was the golden boy.
He fitted in and sounded ‘right’

No one would him annoy.

But when the day of judgment comes

And truth is clearly seen

Verbosity will then be shown

Alone a shallow dream.

For any work of needs must be

Done in the real world.

And if your only tool’s B.S.

Then just yourself is fooled.

One day the time will come when you

Require another’s aid.

And if the cost is much too high

Or if they trust you not,

You’ll find you stand alone to face

A world that you know not.

And all the B.S. in the land

Will help you not a jot!

It can’t protect you from the world

You chose to live outside

Reality runs its own rules

From which you can not hide.

So when you chose to live alone

And feel yourself supreme.

Remember  in the years ahead

You’ll wake up from your dream.

And in those days you may look back

And wonder at the cost

When you ignored society

‘Twas you who suffered loss.

For when the power that you wield

Takes from your fellow man

The profit from his years of toil

To him you’re less Human.

You’ll be alone in life once more

This time without power.

For now, alone, you’ll have to work

This time there’s no backer

Upon the efforts just your own

If you still want to live

You’ll sink or swim by what you do

You’ll reap what you did give!

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