[identity profile] silverflurry.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] greatpoetry
Sisyphus and the Sudden Lightness

It was as if he had wings, and the wind
behind him. Even uphill the rock
seemed to move of its own accord.

Every road felt like a shortcut.

Sisyphus, of course, was worried;
he'd come to depend on his burden,
wasn't sure who he was without it.

His hands free, he peeled an orange.
He stopped to pet a dog.
Yet he kept going forward, afraid
of the consequences of standing still.

He no longer felt inclined to smile.

It was then that Sisyphus realized
the gods must be gone, that his wings
were nothing more than a perception
of their absence.

He dared to raise his fist to the sky.
Nothing, gloriously, happened.

Then a different terror overtook him.

Stephen Dunn
Local Visitations
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Date: 2003-03-03 07:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] miadzin.livejournal.com
Wow, I like it a lot. But what's all that company information at the bottom?

Date: 2003-03-04 04:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theapplepicker.livejournal.com
Publication info--to help you find the book if you want it.

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
1314 1516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 28th, 2026 07:30 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios