A lot of testing

He’s been doing a lot of testing

this devil fella.

Tried it on with Jesus.

What do you want? We can sort it for you.

Comfort? Wealth!

We’ll put you into the top ten percentile,

(that’s half of the nation’s wealth),

you won’t ever need to work again.

We can arrange some good tax breaks, too;

we’ve got some top-shelf accountants on our lists.

Celebrity?

The film crew will be around in the morning.

You can relax, it’s been a long time since fame

was a function of achievement.

A small team of spin -doctors;

should be able to provide

the fifteen-second witticisms

needed to satisfy the media.

Twitter works well.

Power? Influence?

Bit too late to choose your school,

but you’ll find that your hitherto mentioned wealth

will go a fair way towards compensating

for your parents’ oversight.

Just a couple of principles; commit them to memory

and roll them off the tongue when called upon.

You’ve worked hard and deserve everything you’ve got.

You are a generous person,

but you can’t be held responsible

for other people’s failures.

It’s people like you who keep the economy ticking over;

they should be grateful.

There you go! What more could you want?

We’ll go ahead, then?

Did you say, No?

Really?

What’s God got to do with it?

© Ken Rookes 2019