Sisyphus

As if weightlessness were aspirational―
what nonsense―

                                  your death,

        a stone 

I can only hope to shoulder forever. Imagine
it gets better―

                                  what nothing

        am I left with

then? Even despair carries a particular
charge: that fantastic

                                  last whiff of lavender

      detergent

imprinted on the collar of a holiday sweater―

                                    mama,

the mourners are assembling. March me 
up that hill …

Credit

Copyright © 2026 by Shara Lessley. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 28, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

“When my mother died suddenly in 2023, someone described grief as a boulder in the box in which I now lived. Eventually, she assured me, it too would diminish. ‘Sisyphus’ is a stay against that loss.”
—Shara Lessley