There may be a Santa Claus,
but there is no list.
I'm talkin' about The List --
the one that has the names
of all those who get to leave
Earth somehow or other
before the asteroid hits
or the monsters invade or the
oceans suck all the continents under.
You know, that list.
It's in a hundred movies and TV shows.
Not to mention novels, short stories,
and probably dozens of dirty limericks.
But I gotta tell ya --
I've searched for the past twenty years
for that confounded list,
hunting high and low,
suborning officials of the highest rank
and interrogating lowlife ratfinks.
The salarymen of Japan know nothing of it.
And the bushmen of the Kalahari simply shrug
their bare shoulders.
So once I satisfied myself The List didn't exist
I decided to fill that obvious need with my
own List --
with a money-back guarantee; if you didn't
get off the planet in time, your five-hundred dollar
fee would be cheerfully refunded.
So far, the following persons have signed up
and paid in advance:
Robert Reed
Nathan Draper
Robert Strong
Michael Fedo
Clarke Woodger
Bart Seliger
Oscar Halvorson
Sue Ellen Yund
Jed Boal
Jennifer Graham
Peter Rosen
Ethan Bauer
Joseph Palazollo
John Schwartz
Dan Kelly
Tara Kelly
Johnny Diaz
Chip Cutter
Penelope Green
Don Van Natta Jr
William Wan
Coral Davenport
Paul Farhi
Andrew Ackerman
Amy Wang
Christina Zhao
Rachel Abrams
Margaret Young
Bruce Young
Ted Freedman
Motoko Rich
Peter Baker
Noah Bierman
Cindy Boren
Amy Snyder
Bruce Veldhuisen
Tom Hanks
George Clooney
Jordana Green
Ben Ellis
Lizette Alvarez
Joe Morgenstern
Rob and Laura Petri
Jacob Bunge
Mark Mauer
Jerry Seinfeld
Mitt Romney (and family)
Jesse Newman
and others too numerous
to mention.
Anyone reading this post
and wanting to take advantage
of my December Sale
(two passengers for the price of one)
should contact any member of the
outgoing Trump administration --
they're ALL paid in full, and, in fact,
eager to get off world as soon as possible.
They'll sell you a ticket pronto, pup.