Office Mottoes

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Motto heartening, inspiring,
  Framed above my pretty *desk,
Never Shelley, Keats, or Byring*
  Penned a phrase so picturesque!
But in me no inspiration
  Rides my low and prosy brow--
All I think of is vacation
When I see that lucubration:


  DO IT NOW


When I see another sentence
  Framed upon a brother's wall,
Resolution and repentance
  Do not flood o'er me at all
As I read that nugatory
  Counsel written years ago,
Only when one comes to borry[Footnote: Entered under the Pure License of
  1906.]
Do I heed that ancient story:


  TELL HIM NO


Mottoes flat and mottoes silly,
  Proverbs void of point or wit,
"KEEP A-PLUGGIN' WHEN IT'S HILLY!"
  "LIFE'S A TIGER: CONQUER IT!"
Office mottoes make me weary
  And of all the bromide bunch
There is only one I seri-
Ously like, and that's the cheery:

  GONE TO LUNCH

© Franklin Pierce Adams