The Mad Poet of the Year blog posts share the poetry of a long-time Mad Poet. This year-long appointment provides readers with a deep dive of the writer’s work and thoughts on poetry. We are thrilled to have R. G. Evans serve as the Mad Poet of the Year for 2022.
IMAGINE SISYPHUS HAPPY
by R.G. Evans
Does he whistle as he sweats and groans
the boulder up the mountain?
Does he ever think At least I’m not at home
where my daughter wants to die
trembling there at the summit
just before the rock rolls down?
As he follows it, his mind might wander
to the time his daughter screamed
Sixteen years in this goddamn house
with your failed marriage as my roommate!
What did she know about what god has damned?
Maybe he smokes, letting gravity do its job
one step at a time. Eternity is eternity after all,
no room here for a goldbricking soul.
If one can imagine Sisyphus happy,
it isn’t hard to picture him grinding his smoke
beneath his toe, cracking his knuckles,
and glancing at Tantalus in his lake
beneath the trees, bending as the water recedes.
And yet, Sisyphus wonders,
was that a wink he saw from his damned neighbor
when the fruit pulled away out of reach?
At least the bastard’s in the shade, he thinks
and shrugs his flesh into the stone.
This is the title poem from my latest book of poems. I’ve been thinking a lot about old Sisyphus lately. That rock doesn’t get any easier to roll.
R.G. Evans’s books include Overtipping the Ferryman (Aldrich Poetry Press Prize), The Holy Both, and Imagine Sisyphus Happy. His original songs were featured in the poetry documentaries All That Lies Between Us and Unburying Malcolm Miller, and his collection of original songs, Sweet Old Life, is available on most streaming platforms. Evans teaches creative writing at Rowan University. Website: www.rgevanswriter.com
