If you climb six steps of eighteen step ladder you don't have that far to fall
And you won't know great disappointment if your dreams are only small
And those who scaled the heights of success had to climb up all of the way
And many who have reached the summit at the summit could not stay.

He was wealthy and influential only a few years ago
He had ninety five employees and people looked up to Joe
And his friends were in the many but now his friends are only few
And some he thought were mates in good times were those he really never knew.

He has fallen upon hard times a recipient of welfare
Living in small flat in basement big Joe the one time millionaire
His wife left him and took the children to live with her wealthy lover by the sea
She had a taste of the good life and rejected poverty.

He was wealthy and successful and a big name of the town
But from top of success summit he came quickly crashing down
Now he know who his true friends are and now he know more about life
And the truest friend he thought that he had after all is not his wife.

He had influence and money but the good times did not last
And we learn from experience when we remember the past
And he will be all the wiser when his past he will recall
For the mates he counted on then were not his mates after all.

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/big-joe-the-one-time-millionaire/