Classic Poem

If I should pass the tomb of Jonah
I would stop there and sit for a while;
Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark
And came out alive after all.

If I pass the burial spot of Nero
I shall say to the wind, " Well, well! " —
I who have fiddled in a world on fire,
I who have done so many stunts not worth doing.

I am looking for the grave of Sinbad too.
I want to shake his ghost-hand and say,
" Neither of us died very early, did we? "

And the last sleeping-place of Nebuchadnezzar —
When I arrive there I shall tell the wind:
" You ate grass; I have eaten crow —
Who is better off now or next year? "

Jack Cade, John Brown, Jesse James,
There too I could sit down and stop for a while.
I think I could tell their headstones:
" God, let me remember all good losers. "

I could ask people to throw ashes on their heads
In the name of that sergeant at Belleau Woods,
Walking into the drumfires, calling his men,
" Come on, you . . . Do you want to live forever? "