This wintered breath of prudence froze
All hiring in its tracks.
To scale back, the leaders chose
To give some folks the Ax.
It gnawed at sundry consciences
To leave them in this plight:
Employees for good balances
To trade seemed scarcely right.
"It must be gussied up!" they cried,
"Or we might guilty feel!"
So they in conference met, and tried
To make it sound less real.
The term they finally displayed
Was quite a soothing word:
It was appropriately staid,
Though just a bit absurd.
"We haven't really thrown you out:
The word is reposition.
We've merely shuffled tasks about:
It's not an abolition.
Another job within our group
We'll find for you, some way.
You'll be so grateful, that you'll stoop
To take a cut in pay!
"A few, of course, we must let go,
By letting terms expire,
And more we'll push to undergo
An earlier retire.
In this, we hope, our word will prove
To be a lubricator,
And none will notice when we move
To cut their bennies later."
As Stanford's troubles grow yet worse,
These hypocrites prolong
Their efforts to preserve the purse
With more of this old song.
Though none would dream to criticize
A term that's so inspired,
Each one of us should realize
It really still means "fired."
Originally published in SUL News Notes, January 8, 1993.
c 1993, 1995 Fleabonnet Press for the author.