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 through 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