Executive poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry

I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner;

I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm’s Cortina.

In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill

The ma?tres d’h?tel all know me well, and let me sign the bill.

You ask me what it is I do. Well, actually, you know,

I’m partly a liaison man, and partly P.R.O.

Essentially, I integrate the current export drive

And basically I’m viable from ten o’clock till five.

For vital off-the-record work; that’s talking transport-wise –

I’ve a scarlet Aston-Martin; and does she go? She flies!

Pedestrians and dogs and cats, we mark them down for slaughter.

I also own a speedboat which has never touched the water.

She’s built of fibre-glass, of course. I call her ‘Mandy Jane’

After a bird I used to know; No soda, please, just plain –

And how did I acquire her? Well, to tell you about that

And to put you in the picture, I must wear my other hat.

I do some mild developing. The sort of place I need

Is a quiet country market town that’s rather run to seed

A luncheon and a drink or two, a little savoir faire –

I fix the Planning Officer, the Town Clerk and the Mayor.

And if some Preservationist attempts to interfere

A ‘dangerous structure’ notice from the Borough Engineer

Will settle any buildings that are standing in our way –

The modern style, sir, with respect, has really come to stay.

 

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