What Do You Do?
 
 
 
What do you do when it costs too much and you can’t afford to pay?
Do you hunch your shoulders, and turn your head, and quietly walk away?
Do you think how different it would have turned out if you'd known what you know today?
 
What do you think when they’re serving up the artificial cream?
The margarine, and the diet drinks, and the textured soy protein?
Do you think that they really meant something else when they spoke about haute cuisine?
 
What do you say when you get the word that they have to let you go?
Do you pack up your desk, and wish them well, and put on a gallant show?
Do you think what should matter is what you’re worth, instead of just who you know?
 
What do you do when you wake at night and the one you love is gone?
Do you tear your hair, and wring your hands, and pace until the dawn?
Do you think it was better to have loved and lost" or to wish you had never been born?
 
What do you do when you realize its over and you’re through?
That your body is shot, and your hopes are gone, and you haven’t got a clue?
Do you think the man with the hole in hand has room in his house for you?
 
 Louis William Rose
  June 2001