Vitamins and Roughage

By Kenneth Rexroth
Strong ankled, sun burned, almost naked,
The daughters of California   
Educate reluctant humanists;
Drive into their skulls with tennis balls
The unhappy realization
That nature is still stronger than man.
The special Hellenic privilege   
Of the special intellect seeps out   
At last in this irrigated soil.
Sweat of athletes and juice of lovers
Are stronger than Socrates’ hemlock;
And the games of scrupulous Euclid
Vanish in the gymnopaedia.

Copyright Credit: Kenneth Rexroth, “Vitamins and Roughage” from The Collected Shorter Poems. Copyright © 1966 by Kenneth Rexroth. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation, www.wwnorton.com/nd/welcome.htm.
Source: The Collected Shorter Poems (1966)