Italian shoes, expensive suit, <br />the Rep has lunch with my GP. <br />His handshake cordial, pearly teeth, <br />bronze name tag, says 'CONSULTANT'. <br /> <br />The lavish meal is hard to beat, <br />as money is no object. <br />The education here consists <br />of planning how to rob them. <br /> <br />'They ALL are sick', says the consultant. <br />'Our job is to convince each one. <br />If there is one without prescription <br />we've failed to help our fellow man.' <br /> <br />'So, let me share some good advice: <br />If someone is so healthy <br />that all our tests and Latin words <br />cannot convince completely, <br />it is our duty to explain <br />that gray hair, also wrinkles, <br />and slowing down, the signs of age <br />are really illnesses to treat. <br />And please permit my emphasis <br />on life itself which does need treatment, <br />so that from cradle to the grave, <br />our income has its guarantee.' <br /> <br />The waitress now had placed a basket <br />of oven-fresh Sicilian scones <br />in front of them, next to a plate <br />containing squarish little pats. <br /> <br />A taste test proved it margarine. <br />They sent it back and ordered butter, <br />while laughing loudly, both of them. <br />'To think that we'd eat sucker food, <br />that makes you ill and shortens life! ' <br />'Well, never mind, 'twas good intent, <br /> our education has worked well.' <br /> <br />And they discussed this MARGARINE, <br />how people died a few years early, <br />but could be made, after their death, <br />to pay a final payment: <br />'When margarine is liquified, <br />injected into lifeless veins <br />it rivals old formaldehyde. <br />We call it ENDLESS though, and charge <br />one thousand times its going price.'<br /><br />Herbert Nehrlich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-pharma-rep/
