boy philosophers I have known

 

boy philosophers I have known

(a 366 reprise) 

Zeno, Thales

Kung-zi

fools!

 

smug fools

fantasists

and some fanatics

 

the earth is a pillar

and everything flows

don't leave your parents unburied

yeah, right

Pythagoras, we've got your number

 

Plato

filthy liar

enemy of the people

 

Socrates

impersonator

illiterate know-it-all

 

Aristotle

slipshod of guesses

know-nothing

all opinion

 

sainted Augustine's city sucks

 

Aquinas

forgives the rapist

condemns the onanist

(then who's the wanker?)

 

Spinoza made spectacles of himself
(that’s to say ... Spinoza was a poser)

 

Descartes –

rip your head off

see how that goes

 

Kant

anal retentive

racist bastard

 

Marx

narcissist

would-be Nostradamus

 

Nietzsche

mad as a cut snake

 

Kierkegaard

one trembles to say

 

Bergson

was a laugh

 

Heidegger

Nazi Nazi Nazi

 

Sartre was a little gruff

kept the faith, but badly

 

yet I am glad

to have thought so far

Sappho help me!

 

there are magic words

like Maitreyi, Hipparchia,

Hypatia and Hildegard,

Cixous and Kristeva

and Irigaray

 

I am under their spell as well

but the old boys' curse is stronger

 

one feels bad about this

but to make amends?

 

one could offer oneself

at the pet shop

for a cat toy

like Montaigne

 

really it's hard

to know what's to be done

 

Ockham's razor

shaves just a little too close

but stand out of my sun still

would you?

 

philosophy's future's so bright

I must keep the mind clear

of everything cognitive

 

I'm with Bachelard

up in the attic

building my cubby

lost sifting through Jungian junk

all types of the Ark

set sail

 

I'm with Merleau-Ponty

in the float tank, horizon biding

with a full-bodied red

touches the edges

 

Epicurus kicked back

in the garden

gimme a bit of that carpe diem

 

I know who holds up half the sky

who's tugging off the covers

 

but a thousand plateaux

are waiting

 

and boys like me

well you know

we all like

an adventure