Losers By Carl Sandburg

Losers

If I should pass the tomb of Jonah

I would stop their and sit awhile;

Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark

And came out alive after all.

If I pass the birial spot of nero

I shall say to the wind, "Well, well!"_

I would have fiddled in a world of fire,

I who have done so many stunts not worth the 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 will stop and sit down for awhile.

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?"

By ____Carl Sandburg