The Ballad Of Airtran Poem by Mark J. Schulte

I wrote this to commemorate the successful completion of my advisory transaction for Southwest Airlines, which acquired Airtran Airways. This demontrates why investment bankers ought to eschew poetry :)

Airline recessions, fuel hikes, concessions;
profits are hardly in sight.
Who do we turn to? What do we do?
Call Kelly, Jordan, Romo and Wright.

Downsizing looming; Bryan is fuming.
Jeffery is slashing his flights.
And when it's completed, they'll be Texas stampeded...
by Kelly, Jordan, Romo and Wright.

Boeing is whining, FAA fining.
The proper solution just might
be: desist with the panic, and forgo the mechanic, but
call Vandevan, Ricks, Hardage and Wright.

LUV bag-fees are missin'!
Do the Legacies listen?
I know this sounds frightfully trite.
But their traffic did sag - they're left holding the bag.
By Kelly, Jordan, Romo and Wright.

Connecting the dots, we’re just lookin' for spots...
where Southwest can augment its might.
Atlanta looks good... if Airtran just would...
sell to Kelly, Jordan, Romo and Wright.

The bankers are fighting; the lawyers rewriting.
The Special Committee's uptight.
Those legal decisions call for clever revisions,
by Jordan, Johnson, Romo and Wright.

Deal-closing gestation - is a painful frustration.
And what do they get in their plight?
An engraved invitation, for a lonnngggg... integration,
for Kelly, Jordan, Romo and Wright.

Kelleher, Barrett, Parker and Muse;
if I could - I would - reunite.
But put them together, they're like birds of a feather,
with Kelly, Jordan, Romo and Wright.


Mark J. Schulte Dallas, Texas September 19,2011