sisyphus by S.M. Foran
suffer me
to push this offing stone
up the yellowed front of time
while purpled trails of sweatened beads
hone the flesh
to feel the thousand thousand needles
of each indiscretion
to worry the bone of memory
as revolution
follows revolution
and blue dream is crushed beneath
the sandaled tread of one
left to long after life once held firm in fist of youth
Bio
S.M. Foran has a Master of Arts in English and a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies and has been teaching literature and creative writing for almost thirty years. He currently works at Montreat College in North Carolina and lives in Asheville with his wife and two sons. He has had poems and short stories appear in a wide variety of literary publications, including Arboreal Literary Magazine, Euphony Journal, Metonym, Between, and Portfolio North, and is also the author of a collection of short stories, Bite of the Bacchae and Other Stories, and a collection of poems, recently wise. His most recent publication is a poetry chapbook entitled a reader's miscellany (Bottlecap Press, 2024).
Author's note
This poem is part of a new collection I am working on that centers on the underworld as portrayed in various world mythologies. The story of Sisyphus is usually a warning against defying the gods, but I wanted to focus, much as Albert Camus did in "The Myth of Sisyphus," on the existential nature of the punishment.
