It was a very preppy school
Where wealthy parents sent their girls,
Who were their fathers’ source of pride
And were their mothers’ little pearls.

The school walls were ivy covered.
The park like grounds showed tender care,
The janitor was justly proud
Of all the work that he did there.

Now all the bathroom walls were tiled.
They were a pretty shade of blue.
Then one girl got the idea.
(The girls aren’t sure they know just who.)

They would put on heavy lipstick
And then each kiss a bathroom tile.
Some did it with their lips pooched out
And some with lips shaped in a smile.

It had been quite a chore to clean,
All those different shades of pink,
And it began to stain the grout
And all the space around the sink.

Each of the staff had tried in vain
To get the girls to stop this fad,
The darlings treated carefully,
Because school money came from Dad.

Now the janitor, a wise man,
Told the Headmaster what to do
Announce that if a girl gets caught,
She’d be required to clean the loo.

And all the girls would have to come
To learn just how the job was done,
As if she wanted them to know,
The task at hand would not be fun.

So all of the girls were gathered.
Each of them stood with impish grin.
As if to say, “You clean it off,
And we’ll just put it back again.”

Now the janitor’s solution
Was one so simple and so pure,
Just how a man without degree
Could think of such a crafty cure.

He told the girls to watch and learn
He took his brush into a stall,
Dipped it in the toilet water
And then began to scrub the wall.

The look upon each pretty face!
No longer could you see a grin,
It was certain they would never
Kiss a bathroom tile again.

My grandfather used to say, “There’s more than one way to choke a cat, other then using hot butter.” Being from a different generation, I never understood the example but I knew what he meant. He usually said it when he wanted to perform a task in a way other than the usual method.

In Lipstick, the staff with all of their degrees in higher learning couldn’t get the girls to obey. It took the janitor, with only a degree in common sense, to get the graffiti stopped. If only life were so simple. It does make you wonder though, how much wisdom is lost to the world because someone like the janitor doesn’t have the educational clout to be heard, or the incentive to write ideas down so they can be passed onto future generations.