Toyland

Over the past few years, much has been said and written about the present state of corporate America. Voices have been raised rebuking the ways in which those with powerful influences have manipulated their organizations, particularly within large public companies. Toyland: The Executive Suite speaks to these conditions through the medium of verse. These poems address the diminished state of ethical practices in some businesses for the benefit of those with influence. They also speak subtly to the ingenuity and invigorating charisma of these senior executives.

For over twenty-five years, author Jan Benitz has served senior executives in the executive suites of various corporations, not as a corporate executive, but as an executive administrator. These poems, written with satire and subtle humor, span decades and expose some of the real costs of unchecked deceit and power.

At nine and thirty minutes, heavy portals flung ajar;

beneath soldiers’ swords, jauntily stands the Czar.

He stands only for a moment, long enough for all to see,

then majestically saunters past his peasantry.

Thou tellest of a fairy tale, of days gone by.

Tin soldiers, castles, peasants, we now deny.

Alas modern-day citizens, for you this poem is meant.

This Czar, this majestic mortal, is the Corporate President.

- from “The Corporate President”