9 TO 5
Nine to five for a starter to show the new Commish,
That they are doing something and to carry out some crank’s wish.
Nine to five for the worker; nine to five for the sot;
Stay at your desk and wait for the hour, whether there’s work or not.
Nine to five is good odds! Let us make them true,
We can, if, at election time, we all know what to do.
The drunkard holds his job, the drones stay in the hive,
And all is as rotten as ever, but the hours are nine to five!
The fool sits in high office; the bully continues to drive,
The grafter gets his “rake off”, but—the hours are nine to five.
What to us of the hulks, if the summer do arrive,
With all its promise of outings?—the hours are nine to five.
What tho’ the patient plod, the energetic strive,
Your task is never done, the hours are nine to five.
The loafer will persist to loaf, no benefit derive,
He’ll show how little he can do from nine to five.
Here’s to the brilliant one, whose brain made him arrive
And conclude that reform in the service commenced with “Nine to Five!”
May the item he calls his soul, and the stick he calls his spine,
Ache with toil and sweat with hours from FIVE TO NINE.
There is only one person in the world that you can successfully humbug—yourself.
No one can show thee the way that leadeth to thy happiness, but wisdom may save thee much discomfort.