Ladies In Black Poem by Edith Niemeyer

On the Phone with Corporate
[Verse 1]
Black shirt, black pants, another DG day,
Seventeen years or so—
but who's counting anyway?
Registers ringing, freight piled high,
Another truck rolling in
beneath that fluorescent sky.
Then Sherri comes walking,
with that Boss Lady stride,
Catches E
dith on the telephone,
with nowhere left to hide.
'Whatcha doing? ' Sherri asks,
like a boss lady ought—
Edith never misses a beat:
'Corporate.'
...or so she thought.
[Chorus]
🎵 I'm on the phone with Corporate,
Don't bother me right now!
Important business happening—
We'll figure something out somehow.
Ladies in Black,
we worked that floor,
Through seventeen years
and a thousand stories more.
Sherri knew,
Edith knew,
And Kathy—well, eventually too...
For somewhere down that telephone line,
Corporate was Kathy all the time! 🎵
[Verse 2]
No boardroom table,
no executive chair,
No briefcase full of paperwork—
Corporate didn't care.
Just Kathy on the other end,
probably wondering why
She'd suddenly been promoted
without even applying.
From that day forward
the legend became fact:
Whenever Edith picked up that phone,
there was no turning back.
'Who ya calling? '
Don't ask questions.
Don't investigate.
I'm conducting official business
with Corporate.
You'll have to wait.
[Chorus]
🎵 I'm on the phone with Corporate,
Important matters, don't you know!
Black shirts, black pants,
and we've got ourselves a show.
Ladies in Black,
entwined we be,
Sherri, Kathy, Edith—
accidental company royalty.
Years roll on,
but some things stay—
Corporate is still
only one phone call away! 🎵
[Bridge — spoken, mischievous]
'Edith... what are you doing? '
'Talking to Corporate.'
'Corporate WHO? '
...🤫
Kathy.
And Corporate
remained
undeterred.
[Breakdown]
Black shirts.
Black pants.
DG time.
One innocent phone call
became a lifetime line.
Boss Lady Sherri
started it unknowingly—
Edith gave the title,
Kathy became company.
No vote was taken.
No papers were signed.
But some promotions, apparently,
are simply destined by design.
[Final Chorus]
🎵 We were the Ladies in Black,
and we've got stories to tell,
Some we'll share freely...
Some—
well... 🤫
we remember them well.
Through laughter and years,
through workdays long gone,
One ridiculous moment
just kept rolling on.
So if trouble comes knocking
and Edith needs support—
Stand aside, people.
She's calling CORPORATE! 📞
And somewhere Kathy answers:
'What'd you do NOW? ' 🎵
[Outro]
Sherri...
Edith...
Kathy...
Entwined by time,
laughter intact.
Forever and always—
The Ladies in Black. 🖤

Penned from a true DG legend —