ONE MORE TIME, USTA! YOU ARE MISSING THE BOAT. By Javier Palenque

Since logic, data, and the results of bad decisions do not make the leadership of the USTA change its failing ways, maybe let us give it a try to convey the same dire message with poetry. The money-losing status quo Ol’ boys may have read this poem before it is not new.

Missing the Boat by Naomi Shihab-Nye

It is not so much that the boat passed

and you failed to notice it.

It is more like the boat stopping

directly outside your bedroom window,

the captain blowing the signal horn,

the band playing a rousing march.

The boat shouted, waving bright flags,

its silver hull blinding in the sunlight.

But you had this idea you were going by train.

You kept checking the timetable,

digging for tracks.

And the boat got tired of you,

so tired it pulled up the anchor

and raised the ramp.

The boat bobbed into the distance,

shrinking like a toy —