Socrates Poem by Kojo Owusu

Amid the despairing noises and monotony
And futility of our existence - racks and tortuous
Incisions haunt our lone furnace
We walk in the labyrinth of silent echoes uncomplaining
Burdened yet indifferent - we succumb with
Trembling hearts and reverent lips and pay
Homage to the denizens of above.
Eternal servitors and devotees eager
To serve and please and be at peace.
We haunt the open air theatre and the mystic temples.
We stroll the metropolis deafened by
Despairing noises. Elbowed, jostled relegated
To the background, outwitted, defrauded.
Warfare we try to avert yet it was inevitable as it was death.
We thought of focusing on philosophic principles
To aid us invent and discover when he appeared.
An aged man in tatters of ruins - a man goat - hideous
As he is intelligent and avowed thinker.
He soon got an humble followers who were
Bewildered by his strange teachings and at
The same time we were unsettled.
He was hoary and simple and possessed
An unusual heart that made him to endure
Anything that will happen to him.
He was full of questions than answers
And his fame which was wreathed with
Mystic aura soon spread.
We always gathered around him for
Enlightenment undreamed of.
We were appalled by his strangeness.
He was bald and had large bulging eyes
which were frightening and horrifying to behold.
All in all he was harrowing. he said.
What is the meaning of beauty?
We were baffled and bewildered.
Why do we suffer? why do we die?
Now to the issue of beauty.
Once there was an ugly lady,
She was so ugly that her own image frightens
Her when she looks into a mirror.
She stood in front of her mirror one day
And cried. I am not beautiful, I am really ugly. Why?
What the lady refused to discover and utilize
Is the energy, the power inherent in her.
She was fond of outward appearance only which
Is illusory, transient. the true meaning of beauty
Is ability and ugliness inability.
The open air theatre, the temples and the amazing
Discoveries will stand the test of time and
those who made it, the primal architects will be inherent
In it till the end of time,
Questions of this sort were heaped on us
Each passing day and then analyzed to
Reach a spellbinding answer,
He got a wide following and people
From all walks of life begun to appreciate
His impeccable reasoning,
Then came a devastating warning,
He was accused of corrupting we the athenian youths
By teaching strange and alien doctrines which
Defied the rules and regulations stipulated
By the oracles and the olympian Titans,
He was asked by the leaders to stop teaching us
Or will suffer gravely for it. He refused to comply
He continued to teach us until he was condemned to death,
We urged him to run but he refused
And said that the laws of the state must be obeyed.
The repercussions of the hemlock
Truly wounded our hearts,
Tears filled our eyes when in his tatters he
Patiently, humbly drunk his mortal enemy
As if it was a drink of blessing from the gods,
And why do we have to desert the treasure
Of the extraordinary man and heed the despairing
Noises of the crowd?