Would You, Mind, Keep It Down?

My mind, most days.

Reading alone late one night

Leafing through some texts

I hurried up when the doorbell rang

And guess what happened next?

I opened up and saw Plato,

Winded and out of breath!

“Oh dear,” I said, “his dialogues!

He’ll talk me half to death!”

 

I heard a knock, thought “Who is that?”

For it was kind of late

I opened up and saw it was

Jean Baudrillard, who said

“The willingness to entertain

Is hard to simulate!”

 

I heard footsteps outside my door

And thought, “Mercy on us!”

I looked out the window, saw it was

Hermes Trismegistus

“I hadn’t planned on tea,” I said

“But now I fear I must!”

 

“We must now talk,” Hermes then said

Hoping we were ready

“Of gold and lead, and about the

Alchemical wedding.”

“Oh dear,” I said, “I wonder where

This conversation is heading!”

 

He was cut short by a debate

’Twixt Aquinas and Luther

Don’t ask me from where these two came -

’Cause I’m not quite sure either.

And they shouted, voices raised,

Haranguing each other.

 

Aristotle and Karl Marx

Were my next uninvited guests

Walked in like they owned the place

And began a game of chess.

Marx was trying to get all his pawns

To the other side, I guess.

 

I looked outside the open window

And there, upon the landing

With frazzled beard and starry eyes

Einstein was standing.

“The Universe,” he said, “is like a balloon

The way it keeps expanding!”

“So is my head,” I replied -

“And it’s about to burst!”

 

And everyone started talking at once

Like a thousand angry bees

I cast my mind’s eye over it -

Such a chaotic scene!

“The Camel,” I said, “has wriggled in

Now there’s hardly space for me!”

 

Like a madhouse, like a beehive

This buzzing in my head

Every day a new idea to muse on;

A new voice to compound the confusion -

Like a buzzing in my head

These voices of the dead!

Reviews

[TLK]

The jovial nature of rhyme scheme is a wonderful way to showcase the important historical, philosophical, and religious figures and their quotes.

I take away from this poem the intensely personal relationship you can feel with long dead people who recorded their thoughts in books.

I definitely would not want to be part of an argument between Aquinas and Luther. I wouldn't be surprised if one actually killed the other.