Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/grayscale-photo-of-person-holding-umbrella-eup1RDk1I5w) 04.11.2023.
Lies at the End of the Struggle
Enough of Sisyphus and Camus
and their ever-ascending ascent,
their no meaning and their pursuit,
their calm after discovering nothing
to pursue other than the prolonged
wait and the familiar weight believed
to carry the true meaning and expected
to be carried by us for no logical reason.
We need not imagine Sisyphus happy.
We need not accept blind optimism
hidden beneath the guise of pessimism
when asking why we must keep going.
The struggle itself fails to fill our trough.
We need not look to a defeated king
forced to endure the hard labors of hell
and mistake happiness for the brief relief
he feels at the end of every nightmare shift
except to remember he cheated death before
they forced him to see the stone as his burden to bear.
We may never be happy, but there must be a reason
they try so hard to convince us we’ll never be free.
About the Author: Deron Eckert is a writer and poet who lives in Lexington, Kentucky. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rattle, Strange Horizons, Door is a Jar, Ghost City Review, Maudlin House, The Fourth River, and elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram at deroneckert and Twitter @DeronEckert.
