Robert M. Simmons
from Added Entries (Poems 1991- )
Life on Nantucket
(or CEO's in Paradise)
Life on Nantucket
is much to our liking.
No SUV's here,
we'd rather go biking.
Here on the island
we break all the rules.
Conventional lifestyles
are for day-tripping fools.
We grow in our gardens
organic food,
and our beaches are private,
so we swim in the nude.
This island is not marred
by industrial chic.
The mansions we live in
are strictly antique.
The corporations we head
serve most of the land,
except for Nantucket,
you must understand.
Our wives and our children
deserve only the best,
and the products we make
are for all the rest.
No fast-food joints
our sidewalks disgrace,
and popular music
is not heard in this place.
But democratic values
are dominant here.
Once in a while
we have pizza and beer.
Boom boxes are banned,
so don't even try them,
though we profit immensely
from the morons who buy them.
No jet skis permitted
an ordinance teaches,
and no quadracycles
to screw-up our beaches.
Of course in our restaurants
smoking is not allowed,
and of our ban on cell phones
we are equally proud.
No gangs on motorcycles
roam our quaint roads,
and no eighteen-wheelers
haul their huge loads.
But when it comes to shopping,
we leave nothing to chance.
The products we need
are flown daily from France.
That we are patriotic
dare no man deny.
We hang up Old Glory
every Fourth of July.
Life here on Nantucket
is pure milk and honey,
and we pay for it all
with stockholders' money.
So pour all your earnings
into 401K's,
that we might enjoy
more long summer days.
And come to Nantucket.
You'll have no regrets.
Just leave on the ferry
before the sun sets.
© 2003 by Robert M. Simmons
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Subjects: poems about, Nantucket, corporate greed, corporate executives, satire, poetry, poems, ballads
Life on Nantucket