Cynikos
Cynikos
for Diogenes of Sinope, 4th century B.C. philosopher.
There are all sorts of stories about him,
that he counterfeited coins in Sinope and had to flee,
that he lived in a clay wine jar through the hot season.
Yet he was honored by Corinthians
with a statute of a dog in Parian marble.
Some of the stories are too good to be true.
When Alexander asked him what he wanted,
he said please move a little, you’re in my sun.
He built nothing, never took up arms,
ambled around town in daylight with a lantern
looking for an honest man.
He said things to disrupt the public discourse.
“Women know if a floor is clean or dirty;
men walk on both.”
“Coins made by crooks look the same as coins
minted by the City; that is why we weigh them.”
Some called him parasite and saboteur, others
said he exemplified the virtues of a dog.
To prove them right, he bit his friends to save them
and he recognized the true and bristled at the false.
I feel compassion for this man born old
who objected to the status quo
and lived in opposition. But he was a Cynic
who was cynical; he stretched reason
to its limit and in the end it snapped.
He ate things off the ground
and masturbated in the public square.
So I conclude:
Although the gods made man a beast,
a wise man is a sweet and not a bitter fool.
Copyright © Jim Levy | Year Posted 2021
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