JUST DESERTS

You get what you deserve, they said,

You get what you deserve.

I don't believe it now, I say,

although I believed it then.

For being better than other men

I flew to the top of the tree.

Once I sat on blue chip boards

and rode in chauffeured cars.

Now I sit on a chip board bed

in a run down B and B.

Life is a twenty-five watt bulb

and blankets smelling of sweat.

Not good for much except for a drink

with those who'll drink with me.

They paid me well with Directors fees

and a sea of option shares.

The city towers swayed in a changing wind

as markets fells to earth.

Assets drowned in lakes of debts,

while balance sheets flew like leaves in the storm.

I stood in the street and wept in the wreck

as reckoned what I was worth.

Yes, they said I got what I deserved

I still don't think that's true.

No one gets what they deserve

not me, not you.

Max Frost

6 May 2002