At Least It Was Diverse Poem by David Welch

From the top came a directive,
a line that management rehearsed,
they needed money, more ESG,
and said we must be more diverse.
So they hired some new people,
and I did interviews for days,
noticed a lot of folks fell short,
but they hired them anyway.
Bragged about it on the website,
hoping to stay with the zeitgeist,
but when a huge new project came
I noticed something wasn't right.
The work was progressing slowly,
we found far too many mistakes,
were working against a deadline,
with big penalties if we're late.
I tried to push the people on,
they grumbled, started to complain,
reminded them of the big stakes,
their behavior was just the same.
When I told upper management
that they might not be up for this,
they acted like I as out-of-line
they said I was being ‘racist.'
I wasn't putting up with that,
so I quit, and left them for good,
hoping that they could do the job,
nut not really sure that they could.
Three months later I heard from friends
the program delivered had failed,
nothing had worked, half wasn't done,
and the big-time clients had bailed.
We'd passed up folks more qualified,
people who could've done the work,
the company lost millions, yes,
but at least the loss was diverse.

I was working on a movie,
an awesome historical script,
have to say it was my best work,
the producers jumped at my pitch.
We began to development,
when all of the changes began,
we must cut this, have to add this,
the usual Hollywood plan.
When somebody on Twitter cried
"Why are all the characters white? "
The script was about King Edward,
but they just screamed, "It isn't right! "
They caused so much commotion that
the producers went weak and caved,
they casted a black King Edward,
three Asians for his barons brave.
We raised out eyebrows and proclaimed,
"Nobody will buy into this!
Medieval Europe was quite pale,
I'm sorry, that's the truth of it! "
They then cut me from the project,
proceeded without my input,
I wanted to take them to court,
but was told it would do no good.
When the film finally came out
the producers were oh-so-proud,
declaring that it would change the world…
until the receipts all came down.
Like I feared, people shook their heads,
could not suspend their disbelief,
the movie bombed, money was lost,
the whole thing was a travesty.
The studio took a bit hit,
put dozens of folk out of work,
and sure those people struggled hard,
but at least the film was diverse.

I was working construction jobs,
there was a big job for the trains,
to replace an old viaduct
that shook in the wind and the rain.
The government gave money and
put strings on it, that's what they do,
wanted to ensure diversity
in the engineers and the crew.
They especially wanted women,
to boost their numbers up in STEM,
problem was when we went looking
we had much trouble finding them.
The best ones were hired already,
and not many women remained,
but they scraped together a team,
only one had worked on a train.
for two years there was much planning.
I heard rumblings from above,
consultants said things were amiss,
the design was not strong enough.
Even rumors design reviews
were ignored to not seem sexist,
but most figured it sour grapes,
there's no way the state would do this.
We built the bridge that they designed,
laid tracks so the trains could fly by,
there was a ceremony when
it opened with a great train ride.
And for four months things seemed allright,
trains went by without a mistake,
until a strut snapped in high wind,
causing a central truss to break
just as a commuter train came,
it fell to the valley below,
investigators went out there,
the reason they wanted to know.
They found bolts that were much too short,
and metal that was much too thin,
foundations not set deep enough
to resist much in gusting wing.
And then began the whole scandal,
when leaks from the state did reveal
reviews rushed through, oversight lax,
they knew there were flaws in the steel.
But politics are politics
when it comes to choosing who works,
sure, ninety-seven people died,
but at least their deaths were diverse.