An Open Letter to Bill Gates On the Occasion of Downloading OpenOffice

Dear Bill --

For the majority of

My adult life writing

Legal briefs

Business plans

A novel and poems

Of assorted length

You've been my

Constant companion

As uber software vender

And grammatical scold

(in addition to other roles

you sometimes chose)

Long did I chaff under

The yoke of those lines

You insistently served up

Always spewing vermillion

If ever I ran even slightly afoul

Of some grammatical

Stricture you

And Mister Softie

Sought to uphold

When quite suddenly

Thanks to my laptop's

Untimely crashing

Yesterday I found myself

Bereft of further recourse

To the full function and use 

Of what I had previously

Deemed indispensable

But in such mishap

I found greater license

For reward as I'm now
Writing to inform you

Of my immediate withdrawal

From the ranks of the loyal hobbyists 

And assorted others who remain 

Licensees in good standing

Of your copyright
Protected work

As I have declined

To enroll as a member in

Your new software

Subscription scheme

(which by its evergreen 

terms seems more than
a tad overreaching)

Instead I've opted

To download a freeware

Program called

OpenOffice Pro

By which means

From this day forward

I am officially severing all

Legal connection between

You folks in Redmond

And the text of my poems

As henceforth my work

Will be exclusively based

On open source code

Very truly yours,

Joe Lamport