Ralph Windle RW

Cyber-Man

Shy scion of top-lawyer dad
And eager mum, young Billy had
His over-compensating teens
Pre-programmed deeply in his genes.

Since first he’d set his infant heart on
Software while at Kindergarten,
Bill was rarely at a loss
With BASIC or with MS-DOS.
As  Microsoft’s each-widget-sold
Turned everything he touched to gold.

Yet who could know what hidden care
Would haunt our Web-Club billionaire,
When ceaselessly gazzumping worth
Revealed him Richest Guy on Earth?

What’s left to come, the sober thought is,
For a Midas not yet in his forties?

Born Again

Sir John Harvey-Jones, Sir John Harvey-Jones,
Natty, cravaty in multiple tones;
Twin trouble-shooters appended to thigh,
Ancient submariner, ex I.C.I.

Sir John Harvey-Jones, Sir John Harvey-Jones,
Prophet of profit as writ in the stones;
Magnanimous animus of corps d’esprit,
Making It Happen in books, on TV.

What wisdom you toss us for cutting our losses,
You fabulous, famed flagellator of bosses;
How wise to chastise all us corporate sinners
For our wailings and failings as world-beating winners.

Keep on bruising our egos for driving Montegos
And lacking ambition as tall as a tree grows;
Make us higher aspirers, inflame and re-wire us,
Believers, achievers of all you desire us.

Sage of Enlightenment

A darkened boardroom: Enter right,
(Seated: the sober-suited bosses)
A human tiger, burning bright,
A jovial corporate Colossus.

Chairman, Renaissance Man, a Sage,
He strides across agendas,
A Gielgud of the Business Stage
To dazzle and extend us.

Mitsubishi, Hamlet, Pan,
All roles within one drama,
For managing needs all the man
To sublimate its karma.

He moves with charismatic ease
From Blake to tough transaction;
Lives out the Unity he sees
Between Man’s Art and Action.

Bestriding both, as others don’t,
This corporate roister-doister
Reveals why lesser chairmen won’t
Make all the world their oyster.