Fortune's Fables: Turf

Once there was a tavern,
By the name of “Barney’s Bay”.
The owner retired to baron’s life
And was often far away.
So he left the bar and the land and the inn
In the care of his five sons
And they worked together and fought together
And rarely acted as one.

Still —

Barney’s Bay it was a success,
Built on the family’s toil,
For the service it was mighty good,
The location on good soil.
The food they served was excellent,
The wine it was quite fine.
And when you looked at the accounting books,
My how they did shine!

Still —

Other taverns started to build
In the neighborhood one day:
They were small and not so good as Barney’s,
But they wouldn’t go away.
One place it made a dessert,
Just as grand as you could eat.
Another place was not so clean but,
Man, it sure was cheap.

Still —

Barney’s stayed at Number One,
The place you’d want to stay.
(Though #1 was not so tops
Today as yesterday.)
The father said to the brothers,
“Swat these flies down, do it now.”
So they put their heads together
To devise a big plan How.

Still —

Barney was still absent a lot,
Gone on his long trips.
And the brothers were so long in-fighting
They’d forgotten what it is
To plan as one and share their thoughts
And bring their work together:
So the inn did rock and slip its dock
Like a ship befouled by weather.

Still —

Barney’s Bay stayed #1,
There’s no denying that.
While the flies grew into vultures
That were eying Barney’s ass.
For #1 in an empty port
Is a ship that is marooned.
And all could tell that Barney’s
Was a-sinking very soon.
The tavern it grew emptier,
More hollow day-by-day
As guests departed everywhere,
No one could make them stay.
Though the inn still made great coffee,
The beds laid with precision:
The brothers they had turfed so long,
They could not make a decision.

Moral:

Owners they should stay at home
And watch how things are run so
That managers who carve their turf
Should be the first to go.

Afterward: This tale of Barney's Bay is not related to the Latchkeys of yesterday - tho' absentee leadership is the theme of both: one is purposeful, one neglect. Maybe they both end up with the same result, but the Cube dinna ken if tha's so, laddies 'n ladies, The Cube dinna ken, since it's Life now without end yet in sight.

In fact, tho', the tale of today - of Barney's - was the road that led to the Executive change that found us the Latchkey of yesterday's observationing. There's a little more to it than that, tho', and someone be sure to remind me to tell some of the intervening tales of Giants and Bland Boys and Marshmallow Men, of the slain Teenagers of upper-middle-Management who served faithfully as retainers and paid the prices of their jobs as the Vice-Princes, er, Presidents, of both regimes hide golden eggs in their turf-built nests.