I have a friend who's plucky like me
and does not do well with baloney.
She's real, she's true, and sometimes she's blunt,
But one thing she is not, and that's phony.

Her husband, though, is a businessman,
whose syntax forbids snarky tones.
He says, "I see!" instead of "How dumb!"
which makes his wife give out loud groans.

"Why must you kowtow?" my friend asks her mate.
"Why say these things you don't mean?"
"Because I'm in business," he tells her at once,
"where words said are not quite what they seem."

"I hate that!" she tells him. "It's bogus and wrong.
Why can't you just say what you think?"
"Because I'm in business, where folks don't want truth.
They just want you to schmooze and then wink."

"I'd never be able," my friend says, and sighs,
"to speak such B.S., my sweet honey."
"You would if, like me, it was your only way
Of insuring that we could have money!"