THE CHIEF OF STAFF

He was a man of courtly bearing

But wasted it in cringing smiles;

He thought himself to be unerring

But then, of course, he had the files.

And so it was with curt formality,

That so expressed his vile mentality,

That he demanded we should say

That everything was A-OK.

Our delicate discriminations

Produced a desolating dread

But we did as our master said.

This garnered us congratulations.

But for his diplomatic skill             

(And files, of course), we’d be made ill.