`The Indispensable Man’ (Author unknown)
Sometime when you’re feeling important;
sometime when your ego’s in bloom;
sometime when you take it for granted;
you’re the best qualified in the room.
Sometime when you feel that your going
would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist;
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining,
is a measure of how you’ll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore;
But stop and you’ll find in a minute,
That it looks quite the same as before.
The moral in this quaint example,
is to do just the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember
THERE’S NO INDISPENSABLE MAN!
1/26/2011 update - I received this message from Matt Kitchell. Rebecca Lanning also provided the author's name.
"No Indispensable Man" was originally published in "The Nutmegger Poetry Club under the name Saxon Uberuaga. It has also been published in "Boots" in Spring 1993, in "The Country Courier" 1996, "Rhyme Time" in Winter 2000, and in "Golden Times" in August 2003.
