Once upon a bright, clear day
as we labored in our usual way
came a visitor without a smile
carrying a package wrapped in odd style.

Many guests come to our place of work but this guy seemed to peek and lurk
in a sinister and threatening way.
"I'm carrying trouble," he seemed to say.

A nonprofit in these troubled days
walks a torturous path in many ways
But the thing that turns our life to rubble
is the sickening threat of legal trouble.

Yet we should have expected to see this bloke- Twenty five years we've gone after smoke.
It could be a sign we've gotten somewhere
since tobacco lawyers are in our hair.

Searching for datebooks, tapes, posters we've sold
notes, letters, files and monographs old
Down went our pattern of service and science
Sacrificed to burdens of legal compliance.

So, if phones are delayed and we seem distracted
It's the tobacco subpoena, legal process protracted
It's hard, late nights for us and yet
we'll never let them see us sweat!

Honoring civil law is an ancient, sad song
but, of course, any other way is wrong.
So we'll bear the burden and get it done
archiving every knick-knack under the sun.

All this for lawyers whose sad drive for wealth
pits them against public safety and health.
I wonder if, on some sleepless night
they ponder what's "good" and what is "right."

Do the ethics of their legal calling
Detach them from service so appalling?
Or does it cut like a quiet knife
What they're doing with their life?

Perhaps I'm not the one to judge
as I sit waist-deep in subpoena sludge
But one legal point is happily true:
The tobacco lawyers must read this, too.