Nancy L. Meek

SEE YA, RICK!

Well, well, well, so you are leavin’ us
You’re having trouble in believin’ us:
You can’t make a livin’ as an artist.
Keep your day job! Be a pharmacist!
Don’t quit now. We need your skills.
How you gonna pay the bills?
Think about the stuff you’ll miss
In making your analysis…
Like wonderin’ who just stole your pen,
Or never bein’ late again,
No more meetings to sit through
Where you can catch a wink or two,
No more dressing up each day…
You’ll have to throw your ties away,
No more nurses too high-strung
Who help you learn to bite your tongue,
No more waiting for the john
After all the coffee’s gone.
No more drug rep’s crummy pens,
No more cussin’ empty bins,
No more thermostat wars to win…
Aha! Just what will you do then?!
No more quips about your height…
Ahem! Although you know we’re right!
No more balding jokes to bear…
It’s not our fault you have no hair!
No more hearing, “Whistle, Rick!”
When your singing makes us sick,
No more narcs that can’t be found,
No more techs to boss around,
No more tuneless volunteer,
No more dirty jokes to hear,
No more new med literature,
No more black clouds to endure,
No more dashing for the door,
When it’s ‘the ghost’ and nothing more,
No more meals that don’t taste well,
No more “foo foo” coffee smell,
No more will we hear your woes…
How you’ll cope, nobody knows.
One thing that we know is true…
We all wish we had guts like you…
To chuck it all and walk away,
To find a job that seems like play,
To toss our lab coats in the air
And paint all day in our underwear,
To throw our alarm clocks in the trash,
To care not if we have no cash,
To paint all day or paint all night
Or take a nap if that seems right.
It must be nice to be so free,
But we’re not you and you’re not we
And you must do what you must do
And we will somehow muddle through
Until we, too, can shed our fears
And leap, like you, before the net appears!

Author’s Note: Written for one of my co-workers upon his retirement. BTW – He came back after a couple of months… saying, “The money ran out!” ☺