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