SOCRATES
by: Carl Sandburg
I know Socrates was ridiculous, Jack,
And nobody in Athens who was anybody
Let it be known they knew him.
Snub nose, bald head, bare feet,
He never had any holeproof sox,
He never had his hair singed by a barber,
And he was the despair of dermatologists
Who make over the faces God gives men and women.
Went around Athens asking questions, Jack
All kinds of questions, Old Socrates,
Put straight to all kinds of people
Because he wasn’t particular:
Lawyer, banker, policeman, street woman,
He asked them why they are here
Who we all are and where we are going all.
I know Socrates was ridiculous, Jack
Telling the men who ran Athens
He knew God and death and government
Down to fine points as well as they,
Down to the darkest deepest points
He claimed he had the dope as sure as they.
0 yes, I know,
He was ridiculous drinking a cup,
A cup of killing squirming booze,
A cup of mortal drastic hemlock,
Wishing luck and happy days
To everybody in Athens
Ready for hell and hereafter,
Ready for anything,
O I guess he was ridiculous, allright
Why does nobody remember the name of the judge
who fixed him?
Why does nobody remember the name of the doctor
who shook the fatal booze?
Why does a rum-tum-tiddle world go on talking
Socrates and Socrates thousand and thousand
of years?
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