The one aspect of Jay that stands out most in my mind was his tact. Regardless of the franticness or anger of the person he was talking to, Jay was always the epitome of tact and diplomacy. I learned a lot from him.
Something you should know before reading the poem below: When Marcom was disbanded, they first heard of it from a guy from Personnel who came down to deliver the news. As if to soften the blow, the Personnel guy brought along a box of muffins to munch on during the meeting. As you can imagine, ever since that time, muffins have been associated with, and are an indelible symbol of, being excessed.
(One more thing: When I named this poem, I was not thinking of that portion of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony, which was based on Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy." Honest!)
(back to "Farewell Poems" Table of Contents)
Once upon a weekday dreary, While he stared with vision bleary, At the color monitor Jay daily looked at, eight to four, Who should break his concentration, But a man whose occupation Was to do the dirty work involved in making people poor: He set his jaw, walked through the door.
Jay saw the stranger enter there--
Well, to make a shorter story,
So, for the last year, maybe two,
Now, it seems, he's getting antsy,
He and Juvelier are planning, |