Sleep, my dear baby, sleep The night is dark and deep If you refuse to shut your eyes The corporate monster will a-rise
What will he do to me?
Oh he is evil and he has his evil ways He’ll pick you up and send you off To study in a local school Where you’ll find yourself surrounded By other hapless kids of your age
He’ll pressurise you to wake up early He’ll pressurise you to study hard He’ll pressurise you to be disciplined He’ll pressurise you to grow up
So that you may get good grades And constantly compare yourself with other kids So that you may get into a good college And take on a huge debt to study So that you may get a good internship And be paid nothing for your work So that you may get a good job And finally start to pay off the debt So that you may find a good partner And average out your miseries So that you may afford a good house And take on another debt for it So that you may have a good career And have no time for fun or family So that you may have a good retirement And have lots of money but no time or energy
By all means stay awake If that is your kind of thing But if you want to avoid it all And not end up like me Quit your frolic Start counting sheep Sleep, my dear baby, sleep
Everything was going well For five straight minutes Everyone was talking about The agenda and the conversation Hadn’t drifted towards irrelevance
Until one smart lass decided To ruin the peace and blurt out A suggestion which by no Ordinary sense can be said to Be good, useful or even worth listening to
“Maybe it would be better If we hire an external agency To conduct a thorough examination Of this process to identify any Outliers that we may have missed”
A few heads turned, some nodded In agreement while most wanted to Lash out at her for wasting everyone’s Time with her absolutely garbage Piece of suggestion
Naturally her boss commended her Remark and added his two cents to it A snowball had been rolled Down a mountain An avalanche was awaited
The director said something too What he said was beyond you Some terms you had never heard before And weren’t you glad about it? Everyone wanted to add their two cents now
The conversation drifted A thirty-minute meeting Turned into an ordeal An amble through the gates of Torture A saga with no end in sight
The agenda faded in the background Everyone got caught up in this new talk Many other ‘useful’ suggestions Were thrown recklessly at each other’s faces The lass sat charmingly through it all
The proceeding was brought to an end Thankfully Actionables were handed out Disregardingly Another meeting invite was announced Conveniently
Do not be at a liberty To leave little lies lying and leaping about Lock them up in a large lead box Lest they light a fire in your lovely life because
Little lies love to loathe lovely lives Little lies long to link to each other and Form a large lump or a long line Of lethal missile To launch an onslaught of loneliness Upon loving hearts and Tear them apart Like only little lies can do
Little lies lay low Only for a little while They get hungry pretty quickly Limitlessly and Demand to consume larger and larger Chunks of your lively life
Once uttered, apologise Let them not levitate In front of your eyes When they’re little they’re brittle That’s when the damage done can be limited Lose not the sight of The long-term lugubriousness That will not be lulled with a lullaby
Let this be a lesson for life Never let your luscious lips Lose their lustre to little lies because Little lies love to loathe lovely lives
Frank Solanki 