The Manager of Integrated Services

[ray miller]

What today's deemed Fit for Purpose
wraps up tomorrow's fish and chips.
Last year dresses skimmed the surface,
now they barely cover the hips
of The Manager of Integrated Services.

She compensates with fashion sense
for little of a knowledge base,
she's hanging from the clothing pegs,
the hollow headed carapace
of The Manager of Integrated Services.

Her mission is to massage risk
and blue sky thoughts outside the box,
to keep onside Psychiatrists
who dream that they can knock the spots
off The Manager of Integrated Services.

She's jargonised, her role's to find
"inclusive social partnerships."
There isn't any other kind
of language that will pass the lips
of The Manager of Integrated Services.

Directives and Core Strategies
exterminate the Day Centres.
Those bleak unending tragedies
are excluded by the censors
of The Manager of Integrated Services.

Elective Pathways take her straight
past places destined for the axe.
Regulars might regurgitate
their medication on the slacks
of The Manager of Integrated Services.

Take up thy beds and then scarper,
Jesus said to the sick and lame.
He'd not read The Patients Charter
that was written in the good name
of The Manager of Integrated Services.

"They hated me without a cause!"
but Jesus had incurred the wrath
of Scribes and Pharisees, of course,
though what finally saw him off
was The Manager of Integrated Services.

Shrinks utter Hippocratic Oaths
when entering the profession.
Authentic hypocrites and oafs
make a natural progression
to The Manager of Integrated Services.

[Nigel]

My main criticism of this clever rant is that it doesn't scan properly in many of the stanzas mainly because of the stress loaded repeated last line.

[Callum C]

I like the idea of this. I just thought, like Nigel, that it was a bit too heavy on the end of each stanza. Maybe if you used the phrase sparingly it would have more impact.

For some reason, I think it might work better in verses of four lines; the first three with similar rhymes and the fourth The Manager of Integrated Services breaking with the trend. Just a thought.

*Edit*

Maybe if you used the last line in different contexts it would work better. As is, it's a heavy weight fist at the end of each verse. We can see it coming every time but we won't be getting away!

[Elphin]

Ray

The first stanza painted such a picture for me I almost didnt need the rest.

elph

[David]

An NHS horror story, done with gusto and despair.

Funnily enough, I thought the repetition of the last line - longish as it is - works fine.

Cheers

David

[ray miller]

Thanks all. I didn't, and still don't, think the length of the end line was a particular problem, it being a refrain. More of a song than a poem, perhaps.

[twoleftfeet]

A most accomplished piece, Ray - Dilbert would love it.

The "Elective Pathways" verse is PERFICK.

I didn't have a problem with the repeated line : people like that always have lofty sounding yet unfathomable job titles, and we ought to stumble over them while reading IMHO otherwise they might sound credible
In a sense it has completely the opposite effect to, say, The Lady of Shallot
If this were a song, you would probably have to speak that line, which would be hilarious IMHO.

I can only make one suggestion:

Her mission is to massage risk,
THINK blue sky thoughts outside the box,
AND keep onside Psychiatrists ...

Nice work
Geoff

[dedalus]

Never mind the scansion ... this is a Call to Arms!! The only thing is, if you do go in with machine guns you'll only end up with more patients. And no beds or trolleys. Bleak, old son, and more than a wee bit angry. Well, why not?

Cheers,
D.