Once again it’s time for another gem from TMV’s favorite poet, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet:
If Jeff and Ken, the Enron guys, don’t end up beating the rap altogether, each may come away from a short stay in a minimum security prison muttering this paean to his own stern stuff…
Convictus
Trapped by a heartless SEC,
Condemned to the pit where the felons board,
I thank the lawyers who earned their fees
For my undiminished hoard.
Caught in the grip of nasty fate
I might a lengthy sentence got,
But with the help of legal pros
I did some time, but not a lot.
Beyond the cell, the bars, the wire,
Looms a record I’ll always bear,
But with the p.r. choir I’ll hire,
A brighter image will soon appear.
It’s not important the stuff I did,
How crookedly I played the game,
I can buy out of a blighted past,
I am above a sense of shame.
Copyright 2006 Michael Silverstein
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.