Mary, was such a good employee.
She worked ten or more hours a day.
Whenever they had an emergency,
Mary was willing to stay.

Bob was a good employee too.
His work was his heart and soul.
No limit to what you’d get Bob to do,
to further the company’s goal.

When Mary got sick they sent her flowers.
Now somebody else works all those hours.
Bob spends even more time at work it seems,
his wife ran away with the man of her dreams.

I do not mean to say that we should not work,
or that the world owes us our daily bread.
Our duty is something we must not shirk,
yet life must enjoy the first place instead.

A day without lovemaking totally wasted,
soft music to listen to, songs to be sung,
friends to embrace, wine and food to be tasted,
poems to be written, while we are still young.

Youth leaves us, and then death is close behind.
But of work there is always an ample supply.
You may lose your teeth and at last your mind,
yet your job will be there on the day you die.

So make room for the good things today, today!
or finish your days out in sorrow!
Relax and take time out to play, to play!
Finish all of your day’s work, tomorrow.

I wrote this poem for Sherry H. David, then the Director of Admissions at the University of North Florida, in honor of Bosses’ Week. A great beauty, she always seemed to push herself a little too hard. I was her secretary and was perhaps a little too laid back. Nevertheless, it is important to put one’s career in its proper place. LWR