Play the song (MP3)

(This is the Blue Island Beer Club Version, with 12-string guitar and vocal by Bruce, and everything else by Colin Ward.)

Working for the same employer for 21 years, I watched hundreds of people get laid off. It was always for the same reason: senior management was fiddling the books to make the company look good enough long enough that they could exit with a pocketful of cash.

One day the grim bookkeeper came for me.

Spent

You work at your station
learning your trade
You make each thing better
than the last one you made

Come a man with a razor
for an adding machine
His sharp calculations
shave the roster clean

You report for work, the picture of
ambition and intent
They don't even look you up and down
before they declare you spent
A small replacement part
Obsolescent from the start
Spent

Give them thirty-odd years
of eight by five
They look up, surprised
to see you're still there, alive

Come a man with a gallows
for a business plan
His every solution
drops another good man

It's not only just the rate of pay
(you're earning every cent)
It's those job dates on your résumé
that make them declare you're spent
A small replacement part
Obsolescent from the start
Spent

Have the grace to know when you're through
the company exists
for the good and success
of no one like you


Copyright 2006 Bruce C. Kula