Death … by PowerPoint

The great speechwriting teacher Jerry Tarver sent this to our mutual pal Charles Francis, for inclusion in Chuck's quotes and anecdotes database, www.ideabank.com

But Tarver could not resist sending it to me, too; and I cannot resist sharing it with you. After recently listening to "a full morning of corporate PowerPoint" last week, Tarver was moved to poetry:

Learn the fate of a speaker named Clive,
Whose PowerPoint ate him alive.
His face was last seen
Being absorbed by the screen,
Where he was entombed in chart five fifty-five.